1703—1903 


WESLEYAN    UNIVERSITY 


WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 


COLLEGE  Row 


1703-1903 


WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY 

MIDDLETOWN,  CONN. 

1904 


Copyright,  1904,  by 
WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY. 


DEVINNE  PRESS 


Cable  of  Content^ 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTION: 

PRELIMINARY 3 

PROGRAMME  OF  COMMENCEMENT  WEEK    .        .        .        .  •      .  5 

THE  CELEBRATION 7 

Sunday  Morning,  June  28. 

BACCALAUREATE  SERMON: 

PRESIDENT  BRADFORD  PAUL  RAYMOND     .        .        .        .         7, 23 

Sunday  Afternoon. 
ADDRESSES  : 

PRESIDENT  HENRY  ANSON  BUTTZ 8,  43 

REVEREND  WILLIAM  FRASER  MCDOWELL  ....         8,  44 

Sunday  Evening. 
ADDRESSES  : 

BISHOP  CYRUS  DAVID  Foss 8, 63 

REVEREND  GEORGE  JACKSON 9,  65 

Monday  Afternoon,  June  29. 

HENRY  CRUISE  MURPHY  INGRAHAM 10,  85 

CHARLES  SCOTT,  JR. 10,  90 

LIST  OF  CONTENTS  OF  THE  CORNER-STONE  OF  THE  JOHN 

BELL  SCOTT  MEMORIAL 90 

Monday  Evening. 
ADDRESSES  : 

REVEREND  WILLIAM  VALENTINE  KELLEY         ...       10,  95 
PROFESSOR  CALEB  THOMAS  WINCHESTER  .        .        .        .       10,  97 

POEM: 

RICHARD  WATSON  GILDER 10, 124 


2012355 


vi  CONTENTS 

Tuesday  Afternoon,  June  30. 

COMMENCEMENT  LUNCHEON 11, 131 

ADDRESSES  : 

STEPHEN  HENRY  OLIN        ....      131,  139,  142,  146,  151 

JUDGE  GEORGE  GREENWOOD  REYNOLDS    ....  134 

REVEREND  JAMES  MONROE  BUCKLEY         ....  139 

WILLIAM  DAY  LEONARD 142 

BISHOP  EUGENE  RUSSELL  HENDRIX 146 

PRESIDENT  CHARLES  WILLIAM  ELIOT       ....  151 


Tuesday  Evening. 
ADDRESS  : 

PRESIDENT  WOODROW  WILSON 12,  157 


COMMENCEMENT 13,  171 

ADDRESSES: 

BISHOP  CHAUNCEY  BUNCE  BREWSTER        .        .        .        -14,  173 

BISHOP  EDWARD  GAYER  ANDREWS 14,  180 

PRESIDENT  WILLIAM  JEWETT  TUCKER      .        .        .        -14,  188 

APPENDIX  : 

COMMITTEES 197 

FORMS  OF  INVITATION,  CIRCULARS,  ANNOUNCEMENTS       .  199 

LIST  OF  VISITORS: 

REPRESENTATIVES  OF  OTHER  INSTITUTIONS         .        .  211 

OTHER  SPECIALLY  INVITED  GUESTS      ....  214 

ALUMNI 217 

TRUSTEES  AND  FACULTY  OF  WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY: 

BOARD  OF  TRUSTEES 227 

FACULTY 232 

DEGREES  CONFERRED 14,  237 


VIEWS  OF  WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY: 

COLLEGE   BOW  .........     Frontispiece 

Facing 
page 

WILLBUB  FISK  HALL 9 

JOHN  BELL  SCOTT  MEMORIAL 9 

CAMPUS,  MEMORIAL  CHAPEL,  LIBRARY,  SOUTH  COLLEGE        .  12 

FAYERWEATHER  GYMNASIUM 137 

JUDD  HALL 137 

NORTH  COLLEGE 149 

PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  WESLEY: 

AFTER  PAINTING  BY  WILLIAMS 112 

AFTER  PAINTING  BY  ROMNEY 160 

PORTRAITS  OF  SPEAKERS: 

BRADFORD  PAUL  RAYMOND     . 23 

WILLIAM  FRASER  MCDOWELL 44 

GEORGE  JACKSON 65 

CALEB  THOMAS  WINCHESTER 97 

RICHARD  WATSON  GILDER 124 

WOODROW  WILSON 157 

CHAUNCEY  BUNCE  BREWSTER 173 

EDWARD  GAYER  ANDREWS 180 

WILLIAM  JEWETT  TUCKER  -188 


INTRODUCTION 


rpHE  first  definite  action  looking  to  a  celebration,  at  Wesleyan 
J-  University,1  of  the  Bicentennial  Anniversary  of  the  Birth 
of  John  Wesley  was  taken  by  a  committee  which  was  appointed 
at  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Alumni  of  Wesleyan  University, 
held  June  25,  1901.  This  committee,  known  as  the  Wesleyan 
Alumni  Endowment  Fund  Committee,  and  composed  of  David  G-. 
Downey,  William  V.  Kelley,  F.  Mason  North,  Frank  D.  Beattys, 
and  George  W.  Davison,  was  appointed  to  secure  from  the 
Alumni  an  increase  of  the  funds  of  the  University. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  committee,  held  November  1, 1901,  all  the 
above-named  members  were  present,  and,  by  invitation,  Professor 
E.  B.  Rosa  of  the  University.  At  this  meeting  the  suggestion  of 
a  Wesley  Bicentennial  Celebration  was  presented  and  discussed, 
and  resolutions  were  adopted  favoring  such  a  celebration  by 
Wesleyan  University  in  1903,  and  asking  the  Trustees  of  the 
University  to  approve  such  celebration  and  to  appoint  from  their 
number  a  committee  who  should  form  part  of  a  joint  committee 
of  Trustees,  Faculty,  and  Alumni,  to  whom  should  be  entrusted  the 
responsibility  of  carrying  out  plans  for  the  proposed  celebration. 

The  proposal  of  the  Alumni  Endowment  Fund  Committee 
having  been  approved  by  President  Bradford  P.  Raymond  of  the 
University  and  Hon.  George  G.  Reynolds,  President  of  the  Board 
of  Trustees,  the  Ac_ademic  Council  of  the  University  voted,  on 
November  19,  1901,  expressing  themselves  in  favor  of  the  pro- 
posed celebration  and  offering  to  appoint  a  committee  to  cooperate 
with  that  already  appointed  by  the  Alumni  and  with  a  committee 
of  the  Trustees,  if  they  should  see  fit  to  adopt  the  plan  proposed, 
and  should  appoint  a  committee  to  carry  it  out. 

Finally,  at  a  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  Wesleyan 
University,  held  November  25,  1901,  at  150  Fifth  Avenue,  New 
York,  President  Raymond  presented  recommendations  favoring 
a  Bicentennial  Celebration  of  the  Birth  of  John  Wesley  by 

1  Probably  the  first  suggestion  of  the  pro-  communication  of  Kev.  Arthur  Copeland, 

priety  of  holding,  at  Wesleyan  University,  of  Syracuse,  N.  Y.,  in  the  "  Christian  Ad- 

a  Bicentennial  Celebration  of  the  Birth  vocate "  of  June  6, 1901. 
of  John  Wesley  was  that  contained  in  a 

3 


WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 


Wesleyan  University,  and  it  was  voted  to  adopt  the  recommenda- 
tions and  to  appoint  a  committee  to  act  with  the  committee 
already  appointed  by  the  Alumni,  and  with  that  to  be  appointed 
by  the  Academic  Council;  the  joint  committee  thus  constituted 
being  authorized  to  make  and  carry  out  all  necessary  plans  for 
the  proposed  celebration,  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  General 
Executive  Committee.  The  joint  committee,  as  finally  appointed, 
consisted  of  the  following  persons : 


G.  G.  REYNOLDS, 

B.  P.  RAYMOND, 

H.  C.  M.  INGRAHAM, 
W.  E.  SESSIONS, 

J.  H.  COLEMAN, 

W.  N.  RICE, 
W.  O.  ATWATER, 

C.  T.  WINCHESTER, 
M.  B.  CRAWFORD, 
H.  W.  CONN, 

D.  G.  DOWNEY, 
W.  V.  KELLEY, 
F.  M.  NORTH, 

F.  D.  BEATTYS, 

G.  W.  DAVISON, 


for  the  Trustees. 


for  the  Academic 
Council. 


for  the  Alumni. 


The  programme  of  the  celebration,  as  ultimately  adopted,  is 
contained  in  the  Programme  of  Commencement  Week,  given 
below.  Invitations  were  sent  to  a  large  number  of  institutions, 
requesting  them  to  send  representatives,  and  likewise  to  many 
individuals  prominent  as  educators,  clergymen,  or  statesmen,  as 
well  as  to  the  alumni  of  Wesleyan  and  others  specially  related  to 
the  University.  The  forms  of  invitations  so  used,  with  the  lists 
of  guests  of  the  University  present  in  Middletown  during  the  cele- 
bration, will  be  found  in  the  Appendix. 


WESLEYAN  UNIVEBSITY 


programme  of  Commencement  Jteeefe,  1903, 

* 

THURSDAY,  JUNE  25. 

8:00  P.  M.    Prize  Declamations. 

FRIDAY,  JUNE  26. 

4:00  P.  M.     Championship  Baseball  Game:  Williams  vs.  Wes- 

leyan. 
8:00  P.  M.    Rich  Prize  Contest. 

SATURDAY,  JUNE  27. 

2:30  P.  M.     Championship  Baseball  Game :  Williams  vs.  Wes- 
ley an. 

5:00  P.  M.     Preliminary  Meeting  of  Phi  Beta  Kappa. 
8:00  P.  M.     Glee  Club  Concert. 

SUNDAY,  JUNE  28. 
10:30  A.  M.     Baccalaureate    Sermon,   by    President    Bradford 

Paul  Raymond,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

3:00  P.  M.  Address,  "  The  Significance  of  Wesley  and  the 
Methodist  Movement,"  by  William  Fraser  Mc- 
Dowell, Ph.D.,  S.T.D.,  Corresponding  Secretary 
of  the  Board  of  Education  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church. 
Henry  Anson  Buttz,  D.D.,  President  of  Drew 

Theological  Seminary,  presided. 

7:30  P.  M.    Address,  "  The  Old  Methodism  and  the  New,"  by 
George  Jackson,  B.A.,   Superintendent  of   the 
Wesleyan  Mission  in  Edinburgh. 
Cyrus  David  Foss,   D.D.,  LL.D.,  Bishop  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  presided. 

MONDAY,  JUNE  29. 

9:00  A.  M.    Annual  Meeting  of  Phi  Beta  Kappa. 
11:00  A.  M.    Announcement  of  award  of  prizes  and  preliminary 

honors. 
1* 


6  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

2:00  P.  M.    Class  Day. 

4:00  P.  M.    Laying  of  the  corner-stone  of  the  John  Bell  Scott 

Memorial. 

4:30  P.  M.    Baseball  Game :  'Varsity  vs.  Alumni. 
7.30  P.  M.    Meeting  of  the  Board  of  Trustees. 
8:00  P.M.    Address,  "John  Wesley,  the  Man,"  by  Professor 

Caleb  Thomas  Winchester,  L.H.D. 
Poem,  "John  Wesley,"  by  Richard  Watson  Gilder, 
L.H.D.,  LL.D.,  Editor  of  "The  Century  Magazine." 
William  Valentine  Kelley,  D.D.,  L.H.D.,  Editor  of 

"  The  Methodist  Review,"  presided. 
10:00  P.  M.    Campus  Rally. 

TUESDAY,  JUNE  30. 

9:30  A.  M.    Business  Meeting  of  the  Alumni  Association,  fol- 
lowed by  reunions  of  all  classes. 

2:00  P.  M.    Luncheon  for  Alumni  and  Guests  of  the  Uni- 
versity. 

Toast-master,  Stephen  Henry  Olin,  LL.D. 
4:30  P.  M.    Receptions  by  the  College  Fraternities. 
8:00  P.  M.    Address,  "  John  Wesley's  Place  in  History,"  by 
Woodrow  Wilson,  Ph.D.,  Litt.D.,  LL.D.,  Presi- 
dent of  Princeton  University. 
His    Excellency  Abiram  Chamberlain,   Governor 
of  Connecticut,  presided. 

WEDNESDAY,  JULY  1. 

10:30  A.  M.  Commencement.  Addresses  by  Chauncey  Bunce 
Brewster,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  the  Diocese  of  Con- 
necticut, Protestant  Episcopal  Church ;  Edward 
Gayer  Andrews,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Bishop  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church;  and  William 
Jewett  Tucker,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  President  of  Dart- 
mouth College. 
8:00  P.  M.  President's  Reception. 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY 


Celebration 

It  was  evident  from  the  number  of  replies  to  the  invitations 
issued  that  the  exercises  of  the  week  would  be  very  largely 
attended ;  and  the  resources  of  the  Committee  on  Entertainment 
would  have  been  severely  taxed  had  not  the  citizens  of  Middle- 
town  so  generously  opened  their  houses  to  the  Alumni  and  guests 
of  the  University.  By  the  afternoon  of  Saturday,  June  27th, 
many  visitors  were  already  in  the  city,  and  the  annual  Glee  Club 
concert  that  evening  was  attended  by  an  audience  that  filled  the 
spacious  Middlesex  Opera  House. 

The  exercises  more  immediately  connected  with  the  Wesley 
Bicentennial  began  on  Sunday  morning  with  the  Baccalaureate 
sermon  by  President  Raymond.  All  the  exercises  of  Sunday 
were  held  in  the  Methodist  Church.  At  10:30  A.  M.  the  Trustees, 
Faculty,  representatives  of  other  colleges,  and  other  specially 
invited  guests  entered  the  church  in  procession ;  the  Faculty  and 
other  college  representatives  in  academic  costume.  The  platform 
was  occupied  by  the  Faculty  of  the  University,  the  speakers  of 
the  day,  and  a  few  other  prominent  guests.  Music  was  furnished 
throughout  the  day  by  the  Wesleyan  Glee  Club,  the  organist  in 
the  morning  and  afternoon  being  Mr.  W.  B.  Davis,  organist  of 
Holy  Trinity  Church,  Middletown,  in  the  evening  Professor  Karl 
P.  Harrington  of  the  University  of  Maine.  The  opening  hymn, 
number  136  of  the  Methodist  Hymnal, 

Holy,  holy,  holy,  Lord  God  Almighty, 

was  sung  by  the  choir  and  congregation,  after  which  prayer  was 
offered  by  the  Rev.  John  W.  Lindsay,  D.D.,  of  the  class  of  '40. 
West's  anthem,  "The  Lord  is  exalted,"  was  then  sung  by  the 
Glee  Club,  and  after  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures  a  second  hymn, 
number  608,  Faber's 

Faith  of  our  fathers,  living  still, 

was  sung  by  the  congregation.  This  hymn  has  been  so  frequently 
used  in  the  College  chapel  and  on  public  anniversary  occasions 
that  it  has  come  to  be  considered  at  Wesleyan  as  almost  a  special 
University  hymn.  The  Baccalaureate  sermon  followed.  This 
sermon,  with  all  the  addresses  of  the  week,  is  printed  at  length  in 


8  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

the  second  section  of  this  volume.  The  closing  hymn  was  num- 
ber 528 

God  of  all  power  and  truth  and  grace, 

and  the  benediction  was  pronounced  by  Bishop  Foss. 

In  the  introductory  services  of  the  afternoon  two  of  John  "Wes- 
ley's hymns  were  sung,  numbers  127  and  474;  the  first, 

Thine,  Lord,  is  wisdom,  Thine  alone, 

being  one  of  his  translations  from  Ernest  Lange,  and  the  other, 
O  God,  what  offering  shall  I  give, 

from  Joachim  Lange;  and  both  brilliant  examples  of  Wesley's 
skill  and  spirit  as  a  translator.  The  Scriptures  were  read  and  the 
prayer  was  offered  by  Professor  Ammi  B.  Hyde,  '46,  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Denver.  The  presiding  officer  of  the  afternoon,  Presi- 
dent Buttz  of  Drew  Theological  Seminary,  with  a  few  remarks 
upon  the  significance  and  appropriateness  of  this  celebration  of 
the  birth  of  Wesley,  introduced  the  principal  speaker  of  the 
afternoon,  the  Rev.  William  F.  McDowell.  Dr.  McDowell  spoke 
at  length  upon  "  John  Wesley,  as  Saint,  Prophet,  and  Evange- 
list." At  the  close  of  his  address  choir  and  congregation  sang 
the  hymn  of  Bishop  Coxe, 

O  where  are  kings  and  empires  now  ? 

Despite  the  heat  of  the  day,  and  the  number  and  length  of  the 
preceding  services,  the  church  was  again  crowded  in  the  evening. 
The  presiding  officer  of  the  evening  was  Bishop  Cyrus  D.  Foss, 
for  five  years,  1875  to  1880,  president  of  the  University,  who  is 
always  welcomed  in  Middletown  with  love  and  honor.  The 
hymns  sung  were  all  three  characteristic  hymns  of  John  Wesley, 

—  number  139, 

Father  of  all,  whose  powerful  voice, 

perhaps  his  noblest  original  hymn ;  number  496, 
O  Thou  to  whose  all  searching  sight, 

one  of  his  own  favorite  translations  from  Tersteegen  j  and  num- 
ber 814, 

Saviour  of  men,  thy  searching  eye, 

a  translation  from  Winkler  that  well  expresses  Wesley's  heroic 
faith  under  trial  and  persecution.  The  Glee  Club  sang  the 

anthem 

God,  that  madest  earth  and  heaven, 


WILLBUR  FISK  HALL 


JOHN  BELL  SCOTT  MEMORIAL 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  9 

set  to  an  old  Welsh  melody.  The  Rev.  George  Jackson  of  Edin- 
burgh, the  speaker  of  the  evening,  is  one  of  the  most  able  and 
scholarly  young  preachers  of  the  English  Wesleyan  body;  his 
address  on  "  Differences  between  Methodism  in  Great  Britain  at 
the  Close  of  the  Eighteenth  and  the  Beginning  of  the  Twentieth 
Century  "  was  listened  to  with  close  attention,  and  is  a  contribu- 
tion of  much  value  to  the  history  of  religious  thought  and  life  in 
England. 

On  Monday  forenoon  of  Commencement  week,  at  eleven  o'clock, 
is  always  held  the  last  morning  College  chapel  service  of  the  year, 
followed  by  the  public  award  of  prizes,  and  a  brief  address  upon 
the  year's  work  and  history,  this  year  given  by  the  President. 
This  address  was  made  especially  memorable  by  the  tribute  of 
President  Raymond  to  the  senior  member  of  the  Faculty,  Pro- 
fessor John  M.  Van  Vleck,  who  was  appointed  Adjunct  Pro- 
fessor of  Mathematics  in  Wesleyan  University  just  fifty  years 
ago.  The  respect  and  love  in  which  Professor  Van  Vleck  is  held 
by  the  hosts  of  his  old  pupils,  and,  indeed,  by  all  who  have  ever 
known  him,  was  attested  by  the  fact  that  at  mention  of  his  long 
and  honorable  service  the  audience  that  crowded  the  chapel  to 
the  doors  spontaneously  rose  to  their  feet  and  broke  into  long- 
continued  applause. 

The  Commencement  season  this  year  was  rendered  especially 
interesting  to  all  alumni,  not  only  by  the  Wesley  Bicentennial, 
but  by  the  erection  of  two  new  College  buildings  costing  about 
$100,000  each,  larger  and  more  imposing  than  any  built  by  the 
College  for  the  last  thirty  years.  One  of  these  buildings  is  situ- 
ated on  the  corner  of  College  and  High  streets.  It  is  of  the 
Portland  brownstone,  like  all  the  older  College  buildings,  is  three 
stories  in  height  above  a  high  basement  story,  and  is  a  dignified 
and  imposing  academic  building.  It  is  intended  for  the  use 
of  the  departments  of  literature,  philosophy,  history,  and  eco- 
nomics; and  it  will  bear  the  honored  name  of  the  first  president 
of  the  University,  Willbur  Fisk.  This  building  was  nearly  ready 
for  the  roof  at  Commencement  time. 

The  other  new  building,  the  John  Bell  Scott  Memorial,  a  phy- 
sical laboratory,  is  the  gift  of  Charles  Scott  and  Charles  Scott, 
Jr.,  of  Philadelphia,  the  former  for  many  years  a  Trustee  of  the 
College,  the  latter  a  member  of  the  Class  of  '86.  It  commemo- 
rates John  Bell  Scott,  '81,  who  died  of  disease  contracted  while 
serving  as  chaplain  of  the  U.  S.  Cruiser  Si.  Paul  during  the  recent 
war  with  Spain.  The  building  stands  on  Cross  Street,  nearly  op- 


10  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

posite  Judd  Hall.  The  basement  is  of  granite,  the  upper  stories 
of  Harvard  brick  and  Indiana  limestone.  In  architectural  ap- 
pearance and  in  interior  equipment  it  is  thought  it  will  be  one  of 
the  most  satisfactory  buildings  of  its  class  in  the  country.  Work 
on  this  building  had  been  well  begun,  and  it  was  planned  to  lay 
the  corner-stone  at  four  o'clock  on  Monday  afternoon,  immedi- 
ately after  the  close  of  the  Class  Day  exercises.  The  afternoon, 
however,  was  showery,  and  the  Class  Day  songs  and  speeches,  and 
the  exercises  which  were  to  attend  the  laying  of  the  corner-stone, 
all  had  to  be  given  in  the  College  chapel  instead  of  in  the  open 
air.  The  programme  of  exercises  for  the  laying  of  the  corner-stone 
was  carried  out,  save  that  the  stone  itself  was  not  actually  laid 
until  the  next  day.  President  Raymond  presided ;  prayer  was 
offered  by  Bishop  Foss  ;  an  address  was  given  by  Henry  C.  M. 
In  graham,  '64 ;  and  the  audience  joined  in  singing  the  hymn 

number  866 

The  Lord  our  God  alone  is  strong, 

a  hymn  originally  written  by  Professor  Winchester  for  the  dedi- 
cation of  Judd  Hall  in  1871.  The  next  day,  Tuesday,  at  noon, 
the  stone  was  actually  laid,  with  appropriate  remarks  by  Mr. 
Charles  Scott,  Jr.,  and  prayer  by  Bishop  Andrews. 

The  exercises  of  the  Wesley  Commemoration  were  continued  on 
Monday  evening.  The  evening  was  very  rainy,  but  the  Methodist 
Church  was  crowded  with  an  audience  that  not  only  filled  every 
seat,  but  occupied  every  inch  of  standing-room.  The  presiding 
officer  was  the  Rev.  William  V.  Kelley,  D.D.,  editor  of  "  The  Metho- 
dist Review,"  who  introduced  the  speakers  with  some  grace- 
ful words  of  appreciation  and  compliment.  Professor  Winches- 
ter spoke  for  an  hour  upon  the  "Personal  Characteristics  of 
John  Wesley  as  a  Man,"  and  Richard  Watson  Gilder,  editor  of 
"  The  Century,"  read  a  poem  upon  Wesley.  This  poem,  the 
voluntary  contribution  of  Mr.  Gilder  to  the  Wesley  Commemo- 
rajion,  was  one  of  the  most  noteworthy  features  of  the  week ;  of 
sustained  energy  and  beauty  throughout,  it  was  especially  mov- 
ing in  the  passage  referring  to  his  own  father,  once  a  student  in 
Wesleyan,  and  it  closed  with  a  noble  appeal  for  a  revival  of  the 
spirit  of  Wesley  in  family,  state,  and  church.  The  illumination 
of  the  College  buildings  and  the  "campus  rally,"  which  were  to 
have  followed  the  exercises  in  the  church,  were  postponed,  on  ac- 
count of  the  severe  storm,  until  the  following  evening. 

Tuesday  morning  dawned  clear,  and  the  weather  throughout 
that  and  the  following  day  was  all  that  could  be  desired — bright 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  11 

and  sunny,  but  not  unpleasantly  warm.  Tuesday  was  Alumni  Day. 
It  is  certain  that  a  larger  number  of  Alumni  were  present  than 
on  any  previous  occasion  in  the  history  of  the  College.  Nearly 
five  hundred  registered  in  the  library,  and  there  were  doubtless 
many  who  neglected  to  do  so.  The  many  friends  of  the  Alumni, 
with  the  specially  invited  guests  of  the  University,  swelled  the 
whole  number  of  visitors  in  the  city  by  Tuesday  noon  to  consid- 
erably more  than  one  thousand.  The  campus  was  covered 
throughout  the  morning  by  groups  of  Alumni  renewing  the  memo- 
ries of  college  days,  and  many  classes  held  reunions  at  noon ;  but 
the  whole  body  of  Alumni,  with  the  guests  of  the  University,  were 
brought  together  at  the  luncheon  in  the  afternoon.  This  was 
held  in  the  College  gymnasium,  which  had  been  tastefully  deco- 
rated for  the  occasion  with  flags  and  bunting  in  the  College  col- 
ors of  cardinal  and  black.  Tables  were  set  both  in  the  basement 
and  upon  the  main  floor.  The  caterer  was  T.  D.  Cook,  of  Boston, 
and  covers  were  laid  for  eight  hundred.  Music  was  furnished  by 
Beeman  and  Hatch's  Orchestra  of  Hartford.  After  the  luncheon 
had  been  served  the  members  of  the  more  recent  classes,  who  had 
been  seated  in  the  basement  room,  came  upstairs  and  took  seats 
reserved  for  them  in  the  gallery,  thus  bringing  the  whole  com- 
pany together  before  the  speaking  began.  The  toast-master  of 
the  occasion  was  Stephen  Henry  Olin,  '66,  of  New  York  City,  and 
the  list  of  toasts  and  speakers  was  as  follows : 

THE  TRUSTEES  of  WESLEYAN,    Hon.GreorgeG.Reynolds,LL.D.'41 

THE    RELIGIOUS  PRESS   AND  ) 
HIGHER  EDUCATION,  }  Rev'  James  M'  BucMev'  DJX 

)  Rev.  Bishop  Eugene  R.  Hendrix, 
THE  CATHOLICITY  OF  CULTURE,  >     ^^   LLD    '67 

THE  ALUMNI  OP  WESLEYAN,     William  D.  Leonard,  '78 

THE  SISTERHOOD  OF  AMERI-  >  _ 
CAN  COLLEGES,  }  President  Charles  W.  Eliot,  LL.D. 

THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JOHN  WES-  ^ 
LEY'S  WORK  IN   BRINGING  Uon.  Carroll  D.  Wright 

ABOUT  THE  INDUSTRIAL  REV-  I 
OLUTION, 

The  Hon.  Carroll  D.  Wright  was  detained  by  illness  and  unable 
to  be  present;  the  addresses  of  all  the  other  speakers  will  be 
found  in  their  place  in  the  later  pages  of  this  volume. 


12  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

On  the  evening  of  Tuesday  a  very  large  audience  gathered, 
this  time  in  the  North  Congregational  Church,  kindly  tendered 
for  the  occasion  by  the  officers  of  that  society,  to  listen  to  the  ad- 
dress of  President  Woodrow  Wilson  of  Princeton  University. 
The  presiding  officer  of  the  evening  was  His  Excellency  Abiram 
Chamberlain,  Governor  of  Connecticut,  and  about  him  on  the 
platform  were  seated  Governor  Bates  of  Massachusetts,  Hon. 
Martin  A.  Knapp,  '68,  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission, 
Hon.  Leslie  M.  Shaw,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  of  the  United 
States,  President  Buckham  of  the  University  of  Vermont,  Presi- 
dent Tucker  of  Dartmouth  College,  President  Reinsen  of  Johns 
Hopkins  University,  President  Eliot  of  Harvard  University, 
Bishop  E.  E.  Hendrix,  '67,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  and  other  gentlemen  prominent  in  school  or  church  or 
state.  President  Wilson,  who  for  two  years  occupied  the  chair 
of  history  in  Wesleyan,  has  a  host  of  friends  among  the  Alumni 
of  the  College  and  the  citizens  of  Middletown ;  and  the  interest 
which  his  admirable  address  on  "John  Wesley's  Place  in  His- 
tory" commanded  was  heightened,  in  many  of  his  hearers,  by  their 
warm  personal  regard  for  the  speaker. 

At  the  conclusion  of  President  Wilson's  address,  the  audience, 
with  a  throng  of  others,  passed  up  the  hill  to  see  the  illumination 
of  the  College  buildings  and  grounds.  For  an  hour  the  whole 
campus  shone  like  fairyland.  Every  window,  almost  every  pane, 
in  old  North  and  South  College,  was  lighted,  and  the  other  build- 
ings were  hardly  less  brilliant.  A  thousand  Japanese  lanterns 
swayed  festooned  from  tree  to  tree,  all  over  the  campus,  in  front 
of  the  president's  house,  and  in  the  grounds  of  Webb  Hall ;  a  rope 
of  light  climbed  clear  to  the  peak  of  the  chapel,  while  in  front  of 
the  chapel  and  over  the  entrance  blazed  the  electric  device — 


1703 

1831 

-y^      1903 

Here  the  crowd  gathered,  and  for  a  half -hour  made  the  air  ring 
with  the  songs,  old  and  new,  sentimental  or  nonsensical,  but  all 
loyal,  in  which  are  enshrined  the  memories  of  college  days.  Then 
the  undergraduates,  with  the  younger  alumni,  formed  in  line  for 
a  "  walk-around,"  passing  from  the  chapel  through  the  old  North 


If 

>      hd 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  13 

College,  around  behind  the  whole  College  row  and  back  to  the 
starting-point  in  front  of  the  chapel,  where  an  immense  ring  was 
formed,  more  songs  were  sung,  and  as  the  company  broke  up  the 
"Wesleyan  cheer  was  given  seven  times  over. 

The  programme  of  the  week  culminated  fitly  in  the  exercises  of 
Wednesday,  Commencement  Day.  These  exercises  were  held,  not 
as  in  previous  years  in  the  Methodist  Church,  but  in  the  Middle- 
sex Opera  House.  The  speeches  by  members  of  the  graduating 
class  in  competition  for  the  Rich  Prize,  which  are  usually  given 
on  Commencement  Day,  were  this  year  omitted  —  or,  rather,  they 
had  been  delivered  on  Friday  evening  of  the  previous  week — to 
make  room  for  three  more  addresses  in  harmony  with  the  theme 
of  the  week.  At  9:30  in  the  morning,  in  accordance  with  the 
notice  of  the  marshal,  the  Trustees,  Faculty,  representatives  of 
other  colleges,  and  other  invited  guests  assembled  in  the  College 
library ;  the  Alumni  in  the  lower  chapel ;  and  the  graduating  class 
in  South  College.  At  a  little  past  ten  the  procession,  numbering 
about  six  hundred,  headed  by  Hatch's  Band  of  Hartford,  moved 
from  the  College  campus  down  College  Street  to  the  Middlesex 
in  the  following  order : 

GRADUATING  CLASS. 

ALUMNI. 

INVITED  GUESTS,  NOT  REPRESENTING  OTHER  UNIVERSITIES, 

COLLEGES,  OR  PROFESSIONAL  SCHOOLS. 
REPRESENTATIVES  OF  OTHER  UNIVERSITIES,  COLLEGES,  AND 

PROFESSIONAL  SCHOOLS. 
FACULTY  OF  WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY,  PRESENT  AND  FORMER 

MEMBERS. 

TRUSTEES  OF  WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY. 
SPEAKERS  OF  THE  DAY. 
GUESTS  SPECIALLY  DESIGNATED. 
His  EXCELLENCY  THE  GOVERNOR  OF  CONNECTICUT. 
PRESIDENT  OF  WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY. 

At  the  Opera  House  the  Alumnae  and  the  women  of  the  graduat- 
ing class,  who  were  in  waiting  there,  joined  the  procession  and 
entered  with  it.  Upon  the  spacious  stage,  which  accommodated 
about  three  hundred,  were  seated  the  President  of  the  University, 
the  speakers  of  the  day,  specially  invited  guests,  the  Trustees  and 
Faculty  of  the  University,  with  representatives  of  other  institu- 
tions, and  in  the  rear  seats  the  alumni  of  the  earlier  classes.  The 


14  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

rest  of  the  procession  occupied  the  entire  floor  of  the  house.  The 
boxes  and  most  of  the  balcony  were  reserved  for  the  families  and 
friends  of  the  Faculty,  of  the  Alumni,  and  of  invited  guests.  On 
this  occasion,  as  at  the  Baccalaureate  sermon  on  Sunday,  academic 
costume  was  worn  by  the  Faculty  and  the  representatives  of  other 
colleges.  Music  was  furnished  by  the  Beeman  and  Hatch  Or- 
chestra of  Hartford.  The  opening  prayer  was  offered  by  the  Eev. 
James  W.  Bashford,  D.D.,  President  of  Ohio  Wesleyan  Univer- 
sity. Then  followed  the  three  addresses  of  the  morning:  the 
first  by  Bishop  Brewster,  representing  the  parent  English  Church, 
of  which  John  Wesley  lived  and  died  a  member;  the  second  by 
Bishop  Andrews,  representing  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
which  was  of  John  Wesley's  planting;  and  the  third  by  Presi- 
dent Tucker,  representing  that  higher  education  in  which  Wesley 
was  so  genuinely  interested.  It  is  noteworthy  that  these  three 
speakers,  though  following  a  long  series  of  addresses  throughout 
the  preceding  days,  on  the  same  general  theme,  repeated  nothing 
that  had  been  already  said,  but  gave  each,  from  his  own  point  of 
view,  a  fresh  and  original  contribution  to  the  volume  of  discus- 
sion called  out  by  the  Wesley  Commemoration. 

After  these  addresses  the  Bachelor's  and  Master's  degrees  in 
course  were  conferred  after  the  usual  formula,  and  President 
Raymond  then  proceeded  to  confer  the  honorary  degrees  of  Doc- 
tor of  Divinity  and  Doctor  of  Laws.  The  candidates  for  these 
degrees  were  introduced  to  the  President  individually, — those  for 
the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  by  Professor  A.  C.  Armstrong, 
those  for  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws  by  Professor  C.  T.  Win- 
chester ;  and  on  investing  them  with  the  appropriate  insignia  of 
the  degree,  the  President  addressed  each  as  follows: 

WILLIAM  EDWARDS  HUNTTNGTON.  Because  of  your  apprecia- 
tion of  the  living  questions  in  theology,  which  we  debated  in  our 
theological  school-days,  and  because  of  that  fine  sensitiveness  of 
spirit  which  has  made  you  interested  in  all  that  is  human,  and 
because  of  the  success  that  has  crowned  your  work  as  Dean  of 
the  College  of  Liberal  Arts  of  Boston  University,  I  admit  you  to 
the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity. 

HENRY  ANSON  BUTTZ.  In  recognition  of  your  contributions 
to  theological  scholarship  as  teacher  of  New  Testament  Greek, 
and  of  your  services  to  the  Church  as  President  of  Drew  Theo- 
logical Seminary,  which  has  grown  into  fame  during  your  ad- 
ministration, I  admit  you  to  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity. 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  15 

JOHN  BINNEY.  In  recognition  of  your  work  as  a  teacher  of 
Hebrew  and  Old  Testament  Literature,  and  also  of  that  which 
you  represent  as  Dean  of  Berkeley  Divinity  School,  I  admit  you 
to  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity. 

FRANK  KNIGHT  SANDERS.  Because  of  your  devotion  to  the 
study  of  Biblical  literature,  and  of  the  enthusiasm  with  which  you 
have  cultivated  the  study  of  the  English  Bible  among  students, 
and  in  recognition  of  your  position  as  Professor  of  Biblical  His- 
tory and  Archaeology  and  Dean  of  the  Divinity  School  of  Yale 
University,  I  admit  you  to  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity. 

WILLIAM  FRASER  MCDOWELL.  Because  of  your  honorable 
work  as  Chancellor  of  Denver  University,  and  because  of  the 
ability  with  which  you  have  administered  the  office  to  which  the 
Church  has  called  you,  and  because  of  your  advocacy  of  the  cause 
of  Christian  learning  throughout  the  Church,  I  admit  you  to  the 
degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity. 

EUGENE  RUSSELL  HENDRIX.  Because  of  the  catholicity  of  your 
spirit, — a  catholicity  which  springs  from  the  instruction  of  the 
intellect,  the  culture  of  the  heart,  and  the  discipline  of  the  will, — 
and  because  of  your  advocacy  of  every  good  cause  in  the  office 
of  Bishop,  to  which  your  Church  has  called  you,  I  admit  you  to 
the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity. 

CHAUNCEY  BUNCE  BREWSTER.  Because  of  the  insight  and 
ability  with  which  you  have  treated  some  of  the  great  themes  of 
theology  in  your  book  entitled  "  Aspects  of  Revelation,"  as  well 
as  because  of  the  fine  qualities  which  have  made  you  a  worthy 
successor  of  the  man  whom  we  need  not  name  in  this  presence, 
I  admit  you  to  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity. 

HENRY  CRUISE  MURPHY  INGRAHAM.  Because  of  the  reputa- 
tion which  you  enjoy  in  your  profession  for  sound  learning  in  the 
principles  of  the  law,  for  well  balanced  judgment  in  the  interpreta- 
tion of  the  same,  and  also  because  of  the  high  qualities  which 
have  marked  your  practice  of  the  law,  I  admit  you  to  the  degree 
of  Doctor  of  Laws. 

DAVID  ALLISON.  Your  name  has  been  conspicuous  among  the 
educators  of  Canada  for  many  years.  In  recognition  of  the  dis- 
tinction which  you  have  won  both  in  your  Church  and  in  the 
work  of  education  to  which  the  government  has  called  you,  I 
admit  you  to  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws. 


16  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

JAMES  WHITFORD  BASHFORD.  Because  of  your  interest  in  the 
philosophy  of  the  state,  an  interest  dating  as  far  back  as  your 
theological  school-days,  and  because  of  the  lofty  ideals  of  which 
you  have  been  the  powerful  advocate  in  the  State  of  Ohio  during 
the  past  decade,  and  because  of  your  success  as  President  of  Ohio 
Wesleyan  University,  I  admit  you  to  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Laws. 

WILLIAM  JEWETT  TUCKER.  You  have  shown  to  the  world 
your  insight  into  the  forces  that  make  and  unmake  men,  in  your 
book  "  The  Making  and  Unmaking  of  the  Preacher."  In  recog- 
nition of  your  work  as  a  scholar  and  also  of  your  work  as  an  ad- 
ministrator of  the  great  college  which  is  famous  for  the  men  it 
has  made,  I  admit  you  to  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws. 

HENRY  VAN  DYKE.  You  have  passed  on  in  these  recent  years 
from  the  pulpit  to  the  professor's  chair,  but  you  have  continued 
to  teach  the  same  old  verities  that  men  were  wont  to  hear  from 
the  pulpit  of  the  old  Brick  Church  in  the  years  1883-1900.  "  The 
Reality  of  Religion"  and  "The  Toiling  of  Felix"  are  refreshing 
draughts  from  the  same  fountain,  though  they  come  from  quite 
different  periods  of  your  life.  Because  of  your  fine  sensitiveness 
to  whatsoever  things  are  pure,  whatsoever  things  are  just,  what- 
soever things  are  of  good  report,  and  your  genial  advocacy  of 
these  noble  ideals,  I  admit  you  to  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws. 

WILLIAM  HENRY  BREWER.  The  age  in  which  you  have 
wrought  as  a  teacher  of  youth  has  witnessed  a  development  of 
science  that  one  can  hardly  expect  to  see  paralleled  in  the  next 
generation.  Because  of  your  contribution  to  this  advancement 
as  a  teacher  of  Geology,  as  Professor  of  Chemistry,  and  since 
1864  as  Professor  of  Agriculture  in  Sheffield  Scientific  School, 
as  well  as  because  of  the  nobility  of  your  character,  I  admit 
you  to  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws. 

RICHARD  WATSON  GILDER.  Because  of  your  earlier  work  as 
managing  editor  of  "  Scribner's  Monthly,"  and  later,  as  editor-in- 
chief  of  "  The  Century,"  and  because  you  have  found  time  for  the 
sanctum  of  the  street,  and  have  given  service  for  the  betterment 
of  the  neglected  classes,  as  well  as  because  of  the  songs  which 
you  have  sung  with  "  celestial  passion,"  I  admit  you  to  the  degree 
of  Doctor  of  Laws. 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  17 

JOHN  LEWIS  BATES.  Because  of  the  fidelity,  sagacity,  tact,  and 
ability  which  have  brought  to  you  the  highest  honors  in  the  gift 
of  the  commonwealth  of  Massachusetts,  and  because  of  the  courage 
and  consistency  with  which  you  have  administered  this  great 
office  in  the  interest  of  the  people  and  not  in  the  interest  of  any 
class,  I  admit  you  to  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws. 

LESLIE  MORTIEB  SHAW.  The  people  of  the  great  State  of 
Iowa  have  twice  honored  you  with  an  election  to  the  governorship 
of  that  State  and  your  Church  has  four  times  elected  you  as  a  rep- 
resentative to  her  highest  councils.  The  government,  with  well- 
justified  confidence  in  your  theoretical  and  practical  knowledge 
of  finance,  has  put  into  your  hands  the  key  to  her  vaults.  It  is  in 
recognition  of  the  distinction  with  which  you  have  met  these 
responsibilities  that  I  admit  you  to  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws. 

ABIBAM  CHAMBERLAIN.  The  people  of  the  State  of  Connecticut 
have  honored  you  with  the  highest  honors  that  they  can  bestow. 
With  these  honors  has  gone  commensurate  responsibility.  In 
recognition  of  the  fidelity,  the  promptness  in  emergencies,  and 
the  ability  with  which  you  have  discharged  the  duties  of  your 
office,  I  admit  you  to  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws. 

At  the  close  of  this  ceremony  the  audience  rose  and  were  dis- 
missed with  the  benediction  by  Bishop  Hendrix. 

On  Wednesday  evening  President  Raymond  and  Mrs.  Raymond 
tendered  a  reception  to  all  Alumni  and  guests  of  the  University 
with  their  friends ;  and  with  this  very  pleasant  social  event  the 
festivities  of  the  week  came  to  a  close. 

It  was  the  universal  verdict  that  the  number  of  distinguished 
guests  that  were  present,  the  enthusiasm  and  loyalty  of  the  visit- 
ing Alumni,  the  dignity  and  propriety  of  all  formal  exercises, 
and  the  variety,  interest,  and  quality  of  the  large  number  of 
special  addresses,  made  this  Commencement  the  most  memorable 
in  the  history  of  Wesleyan  University. 


ADDRESSES 


SUNDAY  MORNING, 
JUNE  28 


BRADFORD  PAUL  RAYMOND 


BACCALAUREATE  SEEMON 
PRESIDENT  BRADFORD  PAUL  RAYMOND 

* 

'"25uttt>ljenit  pteaseti  £>o&  ....  to  rttoeat  bitf  &on  in 
me,  ....  imtmbiatrip  3!  conftmo  not  tuitti  ffe.sfo  anli 
frfooo, .  ...  but  (  ttjcnt  into  Arabia  anb  returncb  again 
unto  ©anta»eti#.  —GAL.  i,  15-17. 

ONE  of  the  first  things  that  attracts  ray  attention  in  this  con- 
text is  the  independent  authority  which  Paul  claims  for  his 
apostolate.  We  do  not  know  how  much  he  knew  of  the  facts  of 
the  Lord's  life  as  they  are  revealed  in  the  synoptic  gospels.  We 
know  that  he  stood  almost  within  pistol  shot  of  the  actors  in  the 
great  drama,  and  that  what  he  knew  made  him  a  violent  perse- 
cutor. Only  four  years  after  the  crucifixion  we  find  him  a  sym- 
pathetic observer,  an  active  participant  with  the  ecclesiastical 
gang  that  followed  Stephen  to  his  death.  He  consented  to  the 
death  of  the  men  and  women  who  were  witnesses  for  the  Lord 
Jesus,  and  in  his  wrathful  consent  there  was  much  of  the  Red 
Indian. 

The  events,  however,  which  were  genetically  connected  with 
this  revelation  of  which  he  speaks,  constitute  for  him  an  inde- 
pendent claim.  He  says:  "  I  certify  you  brethren  that  the  gospel 
which  was  preached  of  me  is  not  after  man,  for  I  neither  received 
it  of  man,  neither  was  I  taught  it,  but  by  the  revelation  of  Jesus 
Christ.  .  .  .  Neither  went  I  up  to  Jerusalem  to  them  which  were 
apostles  before  me." 

When  Agrippa  challenges  him  to  speak  for  himself,  he  gives  an 
account  of  his  life  as  a  Pharisee,  and  of  his  zeal  as  a  persecutor. 
He  says:  "And  many  of  the  saints  did  I  shut  up  in  prison  .  .  . 
and  when  they  were  put  to  death,  I  gave  my  voice  against  them 
.  .  .  and  I  punished  them  oft  in  every  synagogue  ...  I  perse- 
cuted them  even  unto  strange  cities."  And  he  adds:  "At midday, 
O  king" — and  here  we  come  upon  the  dynamic  facts  which  are 
always  alive  in  Paul's  blood  and  always  eloquent  upon  his  lips — 

23 


24  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

"  at  midday,  O  king,  I  saw  in  the  way  a  light  from  heaven  .  .  . 
I  heard  a  voice  speaking  unto  me,  and  saying  in  the  Hebrew 
tongue,  Saul,  Saul,  .  .  .  and  I  said,  Who  art  thou,  Lord?"  The 
fact  that  stands  out  in  the  foreground  here  is  a  fact  that  has  a 
voice,  and  speaks  Hebrew,  a  fact  that  is  transmuted  then  and 
there  into  a  revelation  of  the  Son  of  God.  No  one  who  has  fol- 
lowed Paul  as  he  masses  the  witnesses  in  the  XVth  chapter  of 
first  Corinthians,  where  he  says  that  he  was  seen  of  Cephas,  then 
of  the  twelve,  then  of  five  hundred  brethren  at  once,  then  of  James, 
then  of  all  the  apostles,  "and  last  of  all  he  was  seen  of  me" — 
needs  to  hesitate  as  to  the  dominant  note  in  the  revelation  of 
which  Paul  speaks  in  this  chapter. 

Of  the  immediate  significance  of  the  revelation  to  Paul  one 
may  be  quite  certain.  He  immediately  took  the  oath  of  allegiance 
to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  He  cried  out:  "Lord,  what  wilt  thou 
have  me  to  do?" 

Perhaps  I  may  illuminate  my  text  and  make  the  movement  of 
my  thought  more  intelligible  by  a  parable. 

During  the  eighteenth  century  of  our  history  there  was  a  man 
sent  from  God  whose  name  was  Benjamin  Franklin.  He  was  a 
philosopher,  an  author,  a  statesman,  and  a  scientist.  He  is  prob- 
ably remembered  by  the  most  of  us  by  his  experiment  -with  the 
kite.  Electrical  phenomena  had  been  observed  for  ages  and  by 
multitudes.  But  the  genesis  of  a  revelation  is  conditioned  upon 
the  warmth  given  the  dead  facts  by  a  brooding  mind. 

The  dead  facts  known  to  every  observer  were  warmed  to  life  in 
Franklin's  mind  and  became  a  revelation.  Other  minds  brooded 
— the  Faradays,  the  Brewsters,  and  the  Edisons — and  the  reve- 
lation grew,  and  like  all  revelations  began  to  make  a  place  for 
itself  in  the  world.  This  spirit  was  seen  to  be  swift,  expert,  deft, 
and  withal  eager  for  service.  It  is  light  and  heat  and  power  or 
anything  else  you  like.  It  turns  the  old  horse  out  to  pasture  and 
runs  the  car.  It  wheels  the  old  stage-coach  under  the  shed  at  the 
country  tavern  and  leaves  it  to  rot,  while  the  barefoot  farmer's 
boy  plays  mimic  stage-driver  on  the  box.  It  is  a  business  mes- 
senger between  our  cities,  and  a  diplomat  between  the  continents. 
The  Franklins  continue  to  brood  and  the  revelation  from  the 
clouds  to  spread  and  to  make  a  place  for  itself  in  the  world,  and 
as  the  imagination  kindles,  we  become  aware  that  although  we 
have  only  tapped  the  frayed  edges  of  the  cloud,  we  have  learned 
of  exhaustless  resources  of  power  in  hiding  and  waiting  for 
service. 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  25 

All  this  my  friends,  is  a  parable.  It  is  a  parable  of  the  method 
of  revelation.  All  the  world,  indeed,  is  a  parable.  Jesus  said 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like  leaven,  is  like  a  grain  of  mustard 
seed.  Were  he  here  this  morning  he  might  say  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  is  like  electricity. 

There  are  three  points  of  contact  between  this  parable  and  the 
text.  The  first  is  the  dead  facts  and  the  genesis  of  the  revelation ; 
the  second  is  the  theoretical  adjustment  of  the  revelation ;  and 
the  third  the  revelation,  making  a  place  for  itself  in  the  affairs  of 
men.  In  the  light  of  this  suggestion  let  us  hear  the  text  again. 
Paul  says :  "  When  it  pleased  God  .  .  .  to  reveal  His  Son  in  me, . .  . 
immediately  I  conferred  not  with  flesh  and  Hood,  .  .  .  but  I  went  into 
Arabia,  and  returned  to  Damascus." 

But  if  we  are  to  follow  the  method  of  the  parable  we  need  to 
remember  that  no  external  fact  conceived  in  its  external  isolation 
constitutes  a  revelation.  It  may  be  the  raw  material  out  of  which 
a  revelation  is  to  be  made.  But  the  genesis  of  the  revelation 
itself  is  an  inner  matter. 

This  experience  must  have  thrown  the  facts  of  the  whole 
Messianic  history  as  Saul  had  known  those  facts  into  utter  chaos, 
a  chaos  from  which  they  could  be  saved  only  by  bringing  them 
into  rational  relations  to  the  new  revelation.  That  adjustment 
and  reorganization  could  not  be  done  in  a  day.  But  of  the  im- 
mediate result  we  may  be  quite  certain.  In  that  impassioned 
ciy,  "  Lord,  what  wilt  thou  have  me  to  do  1 "  we  have  the  red 
blood  of  all  the  great  creeds,  we  have  a  risen  Christ,  a  present 
Saviour,  and  the  Messiah  enthroned.  In  that  utterance  Paul 
puts  the  scepter  of  David  into  the  bleeding  hand  and  a  regal 
crown  upon  the  bleeding  brow.  In  this  dramatic  confession  lie 
concealed  the  principles  which  are  yet  to  organize  anew  the  whole 
Messianic  history.  And  just  here  I  find  the  "far-flung  battle 
line  "  of  Paul's  whole  militant  career. 

But  this  process  of  adjustment  Paul  has  yet  to  make,  and  it  is 
for  this  I  am  quite  sure  he  went  into  Arabia.  We  know  nothing 
of  his  life  there,  but  we  know  that  he  carried  with  him  into 
Arabia  a  new  sense  of  values,  and  that  he  brought  back  to 
Damascus  a  new  perspective  of  history.  There  is  no  doubt  about 
this  question  of  values.  He  deals  with  it  in  this  epistle.  He 
writes  to  these  Galatians:  "And  because  ye  are  sons,  God  sent 
forth  the  Spirit  of  His  Son  into  your  hearts,  crying,  Abba,  Father." 
The  object  of  redemption  from  the  law  was  this :  "  that  upon  the 
Gentiles  might  come  the  blessing  of  Abraham  in  Christ  Jesus ; 


26  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

that  we  might  receive  the  promise  of  the  Spirit  through  faith." 
Here  is  a  new  standard  of  values.  He  who  carries  this  song  in 
the  heart  has  a  test  for  every  kind  of  coin  that  is  current  in  the 
world's  market.  As  during  that  period  of  retirement,  he  repeated 
to  himself  the  great  revelation,  and,  as  he  sang  the  new  song, 
morning,  noon,  and  night,  I  think  he  must  have  felt  that  the  roll 
of  Isaiah's  prophecy,  stirred  by  a  kindred  strain,  trembled  with 
sympathetic  response.  And  did  he  unroll  it  and  read :  "To  what 
purpose  is  the  multitude  of  your  sacrifices  unto  me?  ...  I  am 
full  of  the  burnt  offerings  of  rams.  .  .  .  Bring  no  more  vain 
oblations.  .  .  .  When  ye  spread  forth  your  hands  I  will  hide  mine 
eyes  from  you;  yea,  when  ye  make  many  prayers  I  will  not  hear : 
your  hands  are  full  of  blood.  Wash  you,  make  you  clean.  .  .  . 
Cease  to  do  evil :  learn  to  do  well."  Yes,  he  braced  his  spirit  as 
he  carried  the  new  standard  back  into  the  prophetic  rolls,  with 
the  comforting  thought  that  Isaiah  was  with  him.  It  furnished 
him  a  principle  for  the  criticism  of  life.  And  does  he  not  shout 
for  joy  as  he  turns  to  Amos  and  hears  his  tremulous  challenge : 
"  Come  to  Bethel,  and  transgress ;  to  Gilgal,  and  multiply  trans- 
gression; and  bring  your  sacrifices  every  morning,  and  your 
tithes  every  three  days ;  and  offer  a  sacrifice  of  thanksgiving  of 
that  which  is  leavened,  and  proclaim  freewill  offerings  and  pub- 
lish them ;  for  this  liketh  you,  O  ye  children  of  Israel,  saith  the 
Lord."  He  is  pale  to  the  lips  as  he  reads:  I  have  given  you 
cleanness  of  teeth,  and  want  of  bread,  and  scant  harvests,  and 
repeated  drouth.  Woe  unto  you. !  For  you  hate  judgment,  you 
trample  upon  the  poor,  you  afflict  the  just,  you  take  bribes.  But 
"seek  ye  me  and  ye  shall  live,  saith  the  Lord." 

Religion  is  a  social  force,  which  displays  itself  in  bringing  men 
out  of  the  relations  that  are,  into  those  that  ought  to  be.  He 
senses  the  meaning  of  the  suffering  servant  of  Jehovah,  where 
God's  own  chosen  one  is  put  under  the  law  of  the  universe,  the 
law  of  sacrifice,  to  bleed  and  die  that  man  might  live.  He  finds 
that  his  standard  works  and  the  oracles  of  his  fathers  are  astir 
with  a  strange,  new  life. 

And  now  how  about  tithes  and  offerings  ?  They  are  good  if 
they  minister  to  the  spirit.  But  with  this  thought  their  tyranny 
is  broken.  "  Neither  circumcision  availeth  anything,  nor  uncir- 
cumcision,  but  a  new  creature."  Even  the  law  has  a  subordinate 
purpose.  It  plays  the  part  of  a  pedagogue.  The  spiritual  dis- 
cernment implicit  in  this  new  revelation  frees  him  from  the  ex- 
pectation of  an  external  and  scenic  coming  of  the  kingdom.  He 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  27 

knows  that  although  Jerusalem  were  built  in  all  her  ancient 
splendor,  though  her  conquering  armies  were  marching  victori- 
ous to  the  four  quarters  of  the  Roman  empire,  though  cringing 
captives  were  crowding  to  Mount  Zion,  and  the  hills  of  Judea 
were  covered  with  camels  in  multitudes,  with  dromedaries  from 
Midian  and  Ephah,  there  would  be  in  all  this  no  evidence  of  the 
coming  of  the  kingdom.  Christ  reigns  only  where  "love  and  joy 
and  peace,  long  suffering,  gentleness,  goodness,  meekness  and 
faith  "  reign.  Guided  by  the  new  standard  of  values,  and  backed 
by  his  readjustment  of  the  old  Messianic  history,  Paul  addresses 
himself  to  the  task  of  making  a  place  for  the  new  revelation  in 
the  thought  and  conduct  of  his  time. 

I  think  that  this  experience  of  the  apostle  rings  the  most  char- 
acteristic note  of  Methodism.  What  is  the  meaning  of  that  ex- 
perience which  came  to  Wesley  on  the  24th  of  May,  1738,  and 
which  he  described  in  language  now  become  classic  among  us? 
"  I  felt  my  heart  strangely  warmed,  I  felt  I  did  trust  in  Christ, 
Christ  alone  for  salvation ;  and  an  assurance  was  given  me,  that 
he  had  taken  away  my  sin,  even  mine,  and  saved  me  from  the 
law  of  sin  and  death." 

Sometimes  a  bit  of  historical  setting  may  vivify  our  realization 
of  a  great  truth.  A  few  years  ago  in  a  book  store  in  Leipzig  I 
came  upon  a  history  of  the  Moravians.  In  that  history  I  found 
the  correspondence  that  passed  between  Peter  Boehler  and  Count 
Zinzendorf .  That  correspondence  deals  explicitly  with  the  Wesleys 
and  with  their  religious  experience.  On  the  2d  of  March,  1738, 
Boehler  writes  as  follows:  "  On  the  28th  of  February,  I  travelled 
with  John  and  Charles  Wesley  from  Oxford  to  London.  The  elder, 
John,  is  a  benevolent  man ;  he  perceives  that  he  does  not  yet  right- 
ly know  the  Saviour  and  says  so.  ...  His  brother  with  whom  you 
often  spoke  while  in  London,  is  very  much  disturbed  in  mind,  but 
does  not  understand  how  he  shall  begin  to  learn  to  know  the 
Saviour.  Our  art  of  learning  to  believe  in  the  Saviour  is  indeed  too 
easy  for  the  Englishman.  He  is  unable  to  reconcile  himself  to  it. 
If  it  were  only  a  little  more  clever  he  would  the  sooner  find  his  way 
into  it."  Boehler  watched  with  Charles  Wesley  when  he  was  sick ; 
he  walked  with  John  while  they  conversed  about  his  spiritual 
condition.  During  one  of  these  walks  John  said :  "  Often  I  am 
entirely  certain  and  often  very  fearful.  I  can  say  nothing  more 
than  this :  if  that  is  true  that  stands  in  the  Bible,  then  I  am  saved." 
He  writes  on  the  4th  of  May  as  follows :  "  I  heard  John  Wesley 
preach.  I  could  then  understand  everything.  It  was  not  as  I 


28  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

wished."  Boehler  gives  an  account  of  a  meeting  in  which  several 
of  the  Moravians  related  their  experience.  He  says:  "John 
Wesley  and  the  others  with  him  were  astonished  at  these  testi- 
monies. I  asked  Wesley  what  he  thought  of  them  ?  He  replied : 
'  Four  examples  do  not  make  out  the  case.'  I  replied,  saying  I 
would  bring  him  eight  others  here  in  London.  After  a  little  he 
rose  and  said :  'We  will  sing  the  hymn : 

Here  lay  I  my  sins  before  thee  down.' 

During  the  singing  he  frequently  wiped  the  tears  from  his  eyes, 
and  immediately  took  me  into  his  room  and  said  he  was  convinced 
of  what  I  had  said  concerning  faith." 

These  letters  show  the  intimacy  that  existed  between  the  Mora- 
vians and  the  Wesleys  and  show  also  how  God  made  them  instru- 
mental in  leading  the  Wesleys  to  the  simplicity  of  the  faith  and 
into  the  way  of  life. 

Just  here  do  we  find  the  most  distinctive  characteristic  of  the 
Wesleyan  movement.  Wesleyanism  is  a  life,  but  that  is  not  all ; 
it  is  a  life  of  faith,  but  that  is  yet  incomplete ;  its  genesis  is 
dependent  upon  the  creative  energy  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  who 
works  wherever  faith  works,  but  this  is  not  yet  adequate.  Let 
us  underscore  that  bit  of  history  given  us  in  Boehler's  letters : 
"  He  [  Wesley]  often  said  I  am  entirely  certain,  but  often  very  fear- 
ful. I  can  say  no  more  than  this.  If  that  is  true  that  stands  in 
the  Bible,  then  I  am  saved."  But  that  is  not  the  simple  way  of  the 
Moravians.  That  is  to  put  the  faith  of  the  millions  to  utter  con- 
fusion. Is  each  one  to  work  out  the  truth  or  the  falsity  of  the 
Bible  in  order  to  find  the  certitude  of  faith  ?  Is  each  to  prove  or 
disprove  miracles,  or  the  Divinity  of  Christ,  or  the  resurrection 
of  Jesus,  or  has  the  life  of  faith  a  self -verifying  power?  Does 

the  song, 

My  God  is  reconciled, 

His  pardoning  voice  I  hear, 

carry  intellectual  implications  which  no  logical  processes  have 
yet  verified  !  Here,  as  I  see  it,  we  come  upon  the  profound  deeps 
of  the  Wesleyan  movement  j  deeps  of  which  John  Wesley  him- 
self was  not  fully  aware;  intellectual  implications  which  we 
have  not  yet  consistently  and  exhaustively  worked  out.  Wesley 
makes  much  of  the  believer's  assurance.  But  no  more,  I  think, 
than  does  Paul,  only  with  Paul  it  is  always  a  kind  of  sacred  lyric. 
It  breaks  out  in  the  stately  flow  of  his  argument  like  a  spring 
from  hidden  streams.  You  feel  it  in  his  practical  exhortations 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  29 

and  in  his  apology  for  his  apostolate.  In  the  deep  diapason  of 
his  cosmic  philosophy  you  may  hear  this  recurrent  note  of  assur- 
ance, clear,  sweet,  and  strong,  like  the  voice  of  an  angel  singing  : 
"  And  because  ye  are  sons,  G-od  sent  forth  the  Spirit  of  His  Son 
into  your  hearts,  crying,  Abba,  Father."  It  is  worthy  of  note  that 
genuine  religious  emotion  runs  spontaneously  into  song.  On  the 
farther  shore  of  the  Red  Sea,  Moses  and  the  children  of  Israel 
sang:  "I  will  sing  unto  the  Lord,  for  he  hath  triumphed  glori- 
ously ;  the  horse  and  his  rider  hath  he  thrown  into  the  sea.  The 
Lord  is  my  strength  and  song  and  he  is  become  my  salvation." 
And  Charles  Wesley  was  raised  up  to  write  the  lyrics  of  the  new 
religious  life.  The  millions  of  Christians  that  have  lived  since 
his  time  have  been  made  his  debtors.  He  sang  for  them  and  has 
enabled  them  to  sing  for  themselves ;  for  it  is  often  the  case  that 
fitting  utterance  helps  faith  to  birth. 

There  is  a  sound  philosophy  in  the  use  of  our  hymns.  Let  the 
hunted  soul  sing  with  the  Psalmist :  "  The  Lord  is  my  Shepherd, 
I  shall  not  want."  It  has  been  the  refuge  of  more  beleaguered 
spirits  than  all  the  philosophies.  Teach  the  enquiring  soul  to 

sing: 

My  God  is  reconciled, 

His  pardoning  voice  I  hear, 

and  he  will  learn  to  listen  and  to  hear.  We  must  never  surrender 
the  truth  that  our  faith  is  a  faith  that  can  be  sung,  and,  indeed, 
must  be  sung. 

But  did  the  Wesleys  make  a  place  for  this  new  revelation  of 
the  Son  of  God  in  their  country  and  age  ?  You  may  go  to  Green 
for  an  account  of  the  religious  condition  of  the  time.  Quoting 
Montesquieu,  he  writes,  "Every  one  laughs  if  one  talks  of  reli- 
gion." He  continues  to  comment  on  the  times  as  follows :  "  Of  the 
prominent  statesmen  of  the  time,  the  greater  part  were  unbelievers 
in  Christianity  and  distinguished  for  the  grossness  aud  immoral- 
ity of  their  lives.  Drunkenness  and  foul  talk  were  thought  no 
discredit  to  Walpole.  .  .  .  Purity  and  fidelity  to  the  marriage 
vow  were  sneered  out  of  fashion.  ...  At  the  other  end  of  the 
social  scale  lay  the  masses  of  the  poor.  They  were  ignorant  and 
brutal  to  a  degree  which  it  is  hard  to  conceive.  .  .  .  The  rural 
peasantry,  who  were  fast  being  reduced  to  pauperism  .  .  .  were 
left  without  moral  or  religious  training  of  any  sort.  .  .  .  Within 
the  towns  things  were  worse.  There  was  no  effective  police ;  and 
in  great  outbreaks  the  mob  of  London  and  Birmingham  burned 
houses,  flung  open  prisons,  and  sacked  and  pillaged  at  their  will." 


30  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

It  was  a  capital  crime  to  cut  down  a  cherry  tree.  Twenty  young 
thieves  of  a  morning  were  strung  up  at  Newgate.  "  In  the  streets 
of  London  gin-shops  invited  every  passer-by  to  get  drunk  for  a 
penny,  or  dead  drunk  for  two-pence." 

This  account  of  England  when  Wesley  appeared  reminds  me  of 
St.  Paul's  account  of  Rome  as  given  in  the  first  chapter  of  Romans ; 
of  Gibbon's  account  of  Rome,  when  the  rotten  moral  foundations 
were  giving  way ;  of  the  days  that  could  produce  and  enthrone 
a  Nero  ;  it  reminds  one  of  the  days  of  the  Reformation,  when  the 
priest  laughed  in  the  face  of  his  fellow  priest  as  he  met  him  at  the 
altar ;  when  Christianity  was  a  pretence  and  the  celibate  priest 
was  a  celibate  debauchee ;  when  the  man  behind  the  desk  was 
disgracefully  ignorant  and  the  multitude  besotted  and  brutal  to 
the  last  degree.  No  doubt  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  with  its  wide 
desolation,  lies  under  the  cover  of  this  darkness. 

It  was  due  to  the  Puritans  and  John  Wesley  that  England  did 
not  repeat  the  experience  of  France.  Green  says :  "  England 
remained  at  heart  religious."  "  Religion  carried  to  the  heart  of 
the  poor  a  fresh  spirit  of  moral  zeal,  while  it  purified  our  litera- 
ture and  our  manners.  A  new  philanthropy  reformed  our  pris- 
ons, infused  clemency  and  wisdom  into  our  penal  laws,  abolished 
the  slave  trade,  and  gave  the  first  impulse  to  popular  education." 

Then  Green  goes  on  to  characterize  the  men  who  played  the 
chief  parts  in  this  movement.  They  were  Whitefield,  the  eloquent 
preacher;  Charles  Wesley,  the  sweet  singer;  and  John  Wesley, 
the  great  ecclesiastical  statesman. 

They  made  a  place  for  the  new  revelation  by  putting  it  into 
systematic  giving  in  the  weekly  class,  into  schools,  into  reforms, 
and  into  philanthropies.  Hear  Green  again: 

"  But  the  Methodists  themselves  were  the  least  result  of  the 
Methodist  revival.  ...  In  the  nation  at  large  appeared  a  new  moral 
enthusiasm  .  .  .  whose  power  was  seen  in  the  disappearance  of  the 
profligacy  which  had  disgraced  the  upper  classes  and  the  foulness 
which  had  infested  literature  ever  since  the  Restoration.  But  the 
noblest  result  of  the  religious  revival  was  the  steady  attempt, 
which  has  never  ceased  from  that  day  to  this,  to  remedy  the  guilt, 
the  ignorance,  the  physical  suffering,  the  social  degradation  of  the 
profligate  and  the  poor.  It  was  not  till  the  Wesleyan  movement 
had  done  its  work  that  the  great  philanthropic  movement  began. 
.  .  .  The  passionate  impulse  of  human  sympathy  with  the  wronged 
and  afflicted  raised  hospitals,  endowed  charities,  built  churches, 
sent  missionaries  to  the  heathen,  supported  Burke  in  his  plea  for 


WESLEYAN  UNIVEESITY  31 

the  Hindoo,  and  Clarkson  and  Wilberf  orce  in  their  crusade  against 
the  iniquity  of  the  slave  trade.  .  .  .  The  sympathy  which  all  were 
feeling  for  the  sufferings  of  mankind,  he  [John  Howard]  felt  for 
the  sufferings  of  the  worst  and  most  helpless  of  men.  With  won- 
derful ardor  and  perseverance  he  devoted  himself  to  the  cause  of 
the  debtor,  the  felon,  and  the  murderer." 

For  the  theoretical  adjustment  of  this  revelation  we  must  go  to 
the  writings  of  Richard  Watson,  Adam  Clarke,  and  John  Fletcher. 
And  for  the  place  which  Wesley  made  for  this  new  song  we  may 
go  to  the  History  of  England.  One  might  say,  travel  any  of  the 
great  highways  of  England  during  the  last  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century  and  miss  John  Wesley  if  you  can ;  or,  during  the  nine- 
teenth century,  and  you  cannot  fail  to  feel  his  presence.  He  is 
still  in  the  saddle,  a  herald  of  the  same  old  message. 

This  age  greatly  needs  to  be  made  sensitive  to  Paul's  standard 
of  value.  All  revelations  have  a  hard  time  of  it,  and  the  bearers 
of  them  a  bitter  experience.  And  this  because  they  set  a  standard 
of  life  beyond  their  time,  and  because  it  is  the  business  of  the 
bearer  of  them  to  get  them  into  life.  A  disembodied  revelation 
is  a  spectral  thing.  You  would  not  care  to  meet  one  at  night. 
And  this  revelation  which  deals  for  the  most  part  with  life  as  it 
is  is  in  ugly  contrast  with  life  as  it  ought  to  be;  this  revelation 
makes  religion  an  individual  experience,  and  then  always  a  social 
force,  and  it  is  quite  likely  to  encounter  like  hardness  of  heart 
and  like  opposition. 

The  revelation  is  in  our  time.  It  is  scarcely  an  exaggeration 
to  say  that  everybody  agrees  that  Jesus  Christ,  both  in  his  teach- 
ing and  his  life,  is  a  revelation  of  an  ideal  order.  It  is  a  great 
gain  as  I  see  it,  to  get  that  acknowledgment,  even  though  it  be 
theoretical,  to  get  that  vision  packed  away  below  the  threshold  of 
consciousness,  so  that  when  the  impulse  for  action  emerges,  it 
shall  meet  the  challenge:  "Is  this  according  to  the  standard  of 
Christ  ?"  But  more  than  this:  this  revelation  is  to-day  a  haunt- 
ing presence  in  all  the  upper  ranges  of  life.  It  is  in  municipal 
reform,  in  industrial  discontent,  in  national  and  international 
politics.  It  is  a  quickening  spirit  whose  subtle  influence  is  felt, 
wherever  the  greed  of  gold  is  seen  yielding  to  regard  for  man. 
And  that  is  great  gain.  Regard  for  man  is  both  the  cause  and 
effect  of  the  Lutheran  Reformation.  It  was  regard  for  man  that 
beheaded  Charles  I.  and  established  the  English  Constitution.  A 
great  principle  in  a  savage  age  works  in  a  savage  way.  Samuel 
was  not  over  nice  in  the  method  of  his  warfare  against  Agag  and 


32  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

for  Jehovah.  It  was  for  the  rights  of  man  that  we  fought  for  in- 
dependence, for  the  right  to  be  a  nation,  and  again  in  '61-'65  for 
the  right  to  continue  to  be  a  nation.  A  quickening  spirit  has 
gone  forth  into  the  world  from  the  revelation  of  the  Son  of  God, 
whose  imperious  presence  demands  opportunity  for  the  last  man 
of  the  age.  The  stress  of  that  demand  is  nowhere  more  evident 
than  in  the  United  States.  It  was  John  Quincy  Adams  who  said 
that "  the  highest  glory  of  the  American  Revolution  was  this :  it 
connected  in  an  indissoluble  bond  the  principles  of  civil  govern- 
ment with  the  principles  of  Christianity."  Perhaps  the  stress  of 
the  demand  for  regard  for  man  is  due  to  this  "indissoluble 
bond."  This  field  is  too  tempting.  The  revelation  is  evident  in 
our  age  as  an  ideal  order,  and  as  a  stress  upon  all  men  and  in  all 
our  institutions ;  for  "there  is  just  as  much  of  Christ  in  the  age 
as  there  is  of  the  spirit  of  Christ." 

Moreover,  there  is  a  spiritual  energy  in  that  ideal  which  under- 
girds  our  whole  life,  an  energy  that  is  ever  carrying  spiritual 
impulse  and  spiritual  elevation  into  the  deeps  of  man's  moral 
nature.  It  is  not  known  by  a  physical  stress;  it  is  not  an  arc 
light,  not  an  audible  voice,  but  a  spiritual  impulse  that  breaks  in 
the  consciousness  of  man,  in  "love,  joy,  peace,  long  suffering, 
gentleness,  goodness,  faith,  meekness,  temperance." 

Hear  Paul's  philosophy  of  this  order  and  this  energy:  "For  by 
Him  were  all  things  created,  that  are  in  heaven,  and  that  are 
in  earth,  visible  and  invisible,  ...  all  things  were  created  by 
him  ...  by  him  all  things  consist."  He  is  their  final  cause. 
"Having  made  known  unto  us  the  mystery  of  his  will,  .  .  .  that 
in  the  dispensation  of  the  fulness  of  times  he  might  gather 
together  in  one  all  things  in  Christ,"  that  he  might  be  "head  over 
all  to  the  church."  In  the  eighth  of  Romans  Paul  conceives  of 
the  whole  universe  as  taken  into  this  movement:  the  world  goes 
groaning  on  and  up,  to  his  time;  the  spirit  breathes  the  unutter- 
able longings  of  the  creature;  all  things  are  dominated  by  a 
central  purpose,  and  that  a  purpose  to  work  together  for  the  good 
of  them  that  love  God. 

Paul  assumes,  and  Wesley  testifies  to,  a  miniature  duplicate  of 
this  kingdom  in  the  soul  of  man ;  to  the  Day  Star  already  risen ; 
to  a  rift  of  sunshine  that  explains  the  meaning  of  that  day  and 
state  that  has  no  need  of  the  sun  or  moon.  Conscience  with  its 
imperious  "you  ought"  carries  us  to  the  border  land  of  that  great 
day,  and  may  not  the  spirit  of  the  living  God  carry  us  into  it? 

But  our  age  shies  at  this  teaching  of  the  revelation.    And  why, 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  33 

may  I  ask?  Is  it  because  of  the  dominance  of  a  false  view  of 
life?  Has  that  false  view  obscured  some  things  that  are  very 
real?  Why  should  it  be  thought  a  thing  incredible  that  God 
should  raise  the  spiritually  dead  and  quicken  them  to  a  new  life! 
Many  an  age  has  been  impoverished  by  the  dominance  of  some 
false  theory.  The  Almighty  had  to  destroy  Jerusalem  in  order  to 
free  the  Israelitish  mind  from  its  vitiating  dominance.  It  came 
to  this  pass:  either  the  kingdom  of  God  must  be  set  up  there,  or 
not  set  up  at  all.  There  was  no  revelation  from  the  Almighty 
that  could  get  itself  expressed  except  as  it  was  mediated  by  that 
view.  Now  when  that  view  obtains  in  any  city  where  you  hold 
real  estate,  you  had  better  put  it  up  for  sale.  That  perverted  no- 
tion still  holds  in  some  quarters.  Luther's  age  was  wasted  by  the 
false  dominance  of  ecclesiastical  authority.  Ecclesiasticism  has 
its  value,  but  when  a  German  emperor  has  to  make  his  way  in 
penitent  garb  over  the  Alps,  and  stand  three  days  bare-footed 
outside  the  castle  of  Canossa  to  get  an  audience  with  Pope 
Gregory,  there  is  something  wrong  in  the  emphasis  of  things. 
The  vitiating  influence  of  that  ecclesiastical  dogma  made  its  way 
into  every  detail  of  life,  from  the  life  of  the  crowned  emperor  to 
that  of  the  street  mendicant.  When  you  make  the  tithing  of 
mint  of  transcendent  import,  you  can't  make  the  faith  that  binds 
to  God  and  works  by  love  much  more  important.  You  have  ex- 
hausted your  adjectives  and  you  are  obliged  to  teach,  whatever 
you  may  say,  that  faith  is  about  an  equally  important  matter.  I 
do  not  wonder  that  the  great  German  chancellor,  in  his  quarrel 
with  the  church  of  Rome,  on  the  educational  question,  was  led  to 
say:  "We  are  not  going  to  Canossa." 

The  false  dominance  of  the  trivial  may  waste  the  blood  of  an 
age  like  a  fever.  Paul  saw  that,  and  his  new  standard  saved  him 
from  it,  as  is  apparent  in  his  letters  to  Timothy.  He  writes: 
"  Refuse  profane  and  old  wives' fables."  .  .  .  "Shun  profane  and 
vain  babblings.  .  .  .  But  foolish  and  unlearned  questions  avoid, 
knowing  that  they  do  gender  strifes."  In  contrast  to  the  trivial 
he  exalts  the  great  verities.  "Fight  the  good  fight  of  faith,  lay 
hold  on  eternal  life  ...  I  give  thee  charge  in  the  sight  of  God, 
.  .  .  that  thou  keep  this  commandment  without  spot,  unrebuke- 
able,  until  the  appearing  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ:  which  in  his 
times  he  shall  show,  who  is  the  blessed  and  only  Potentate,  the 
King  of  Kings  and  Lord  of  Lords :  who  only  hath  immortality, 
dwelling  in  the  light  which  no  man  can  approach  unto." 

Is  there  a  perverted  view  of  things  in  our  time,  a  view  that 
3 


34  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

makes  against  the  ideal  and  the  unseen,  and  so  against  this 
revelation  of  the  Son  of  God  to  our  time?  The  most  noteworthy 
achievements  of  our  time  have  been  in  the  field  of  science. 
Marvels  are  so  common  that  I  know  of  none  that  is  startling 
enough  to  lead  one  to  cross  the  street.  But  can  one  realize  what 
it  means  to  stand  at  a  telephone,  and,  speaking  in  an  ordinary 
tone  of  voice,  make  himself  distinctly  heard  a  thousand  miles 
away?  Do  we  know  that  we  live  in  the  day  of  wireless  teleg- 
raphy? That  two  instruments  can  be  set  up  five  hundred  miles 
apart,  and,  like  two  tuning  forks,  the  second  one  will  take  up 
the  vibrations  set  in  motion  by  the  first,  and  turn  them  into 
hieroglyphics  which  the  instructed  man  can  read?  Says  Pro- 
fessor John  A.  Fleming,  of  London:  "When  it  is  realized  that 
these  visible  dots  and  dashes  are  the  result  of  a  train  of  inter- 
mingled electric  waves  rushing  with  the  speed  of  light  across  an 
intervening  space  of  thirty  miles,  caught  on  one  and  the  same 
aerial  wire,  and  disentangled  and  sorted  out  automatically  by  the 
two  machines  into  intelligible  messages  in  different  languages — 
English  and  French  —  the  wonder  of  it  all  cannot  but  strike  the 
mind." 

When  I  follow  the  lead  of  the  scientist  up  along  these  same 
waves  to  the  limit  of  my  power  of  hearing,  and  know  that  they 
reach  on  and  up  toward  the  music  of  the  morning  stars,  I  feel  as 
though  we  might  begin  to  listen  for  the  heart-beat  of  the  Al- 
mighty, and  when  I  am  told  that  the  spectrum  extends  far  and 
beyond  the  colors  we  see,  that  if  our  sense  of  sight  were  more 
keen,  the  invisible  would  be  made  visible  in  every  direction,  I 
begin  to  feel  as  though  I  might  meet  the  Lord  walking  among 
the  trees  of  the  garden.  When  I  consider  that  along  any  of  the 
lines  of  scientific  investigation  one  is  led  on  into  the  great  mys- 
tery— for  mystery  enwraps  us  on  every  side — I  feel  that  science 
ought  to  be  the  handmaid  of  religion.  But  I  find  in  some  quar- 
ters the  presence  of  a  spirit  that  makes  against  the  ideal  and  the 
spiritual,  and  therefore  against  the  conditions  under  which  the 
Son  of  God  is  to  be  revealed  in  our  time.  The  mastery  which 
science  has  given  us  over  the  resources  of  nature  has  contributed 
to  an  inordinate  greed  of  gain.  It  has  imperiled  the  gospel  order, 
that  is,  the  divine  order.  It  puts  gain  against  man.  Man  can 
never  be  made  a  means  to  an  end.  He  is  an  end  in  and  of  him- 
self. It  has  fostered  an  exaggerated  estimate  of  mere  matter  of 
fact.  You  cannot  put  a  chapter  of  names  in  the  Book  of  Chroni- 
cles along  with  the  twenty-third  Psalm,  even  though  they  may 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  35 

give  you  matters  of  fact.  Is  there  not  a  call  for  a  standard  of 
value  here?  It  has  resulted  in  an  exaggerated  view  of  the  scien- 
tific method.  As  an  instrument  of  knowledge  that  method  has 
its  place,  but  it  cannot  exhaust  all  that  is  to  be  known.  The 
modern  version  of  the  old  poem  hits  it  off  pretty  well.  It  runs 

now: 

Twinkle,  twinkle,  little  star, 

I  do  not  wonder  what  you  are ; 
What  you  are  I  know  quite  well, 
And  your  component  parts  can  tell. 

What  a  fine  caricature  Browning  has  of  that  vanity  in  his  old 
dog  Tray.  Tray  had  plunged  into  the  water  to  rescue  a  beggar 
child,  and  then  plunged  in  again  to  rescue  the  doll  of  the  child, 
and  Browning  sings: 

And  so  amid  the  laughter  gay, 

Trotted  my  hero  off  —  old  Tray, 

Till  somebody  prerogatived 

With  reason  reasoned :  Why  he  dived, 

His  brain  would  show  us  I  should  say. 

John,  go  and  catch  —  or  if  needs  be, 

Purchase  that  animal  for  me ! 

By  vivisection,  at  expense 

Of  half  an  hour  and  eighteen  pence, 

How  brain  secretes  dog's  soul,  we  11  see. 

There  is  an  exaggerated  confidence  in  classification,  tabulation, 
and  the  contents  of  a  pigeon  hole.  Every  step  in  the  way  of 
classification  is  a  step  away  from  reality. 

The  truth  I  am  after  is  this:  Neither  science  nor  the  scientific 
method  opens  or  can  open  all  the  approaches  to  reality. 

Wordsworth  felt  the  truth  of  some  things  that  do  not  submit 
themselves  to  the  scientific  method.  "He  has  perceived  how 
nature  not  merely  works  delight  in  the  blood,  but  flashes  illumi- 
nation on  the  soul." 

For  I  have  learned 

To  look  on  Nature,  not  as  in  the  hour 

Of  thoughtless  youth,  but  hearing  oftentimes 

The  still,  sad  music  of  humanity, 

Nor  harsh,  nor  grating,  though  of  ample  power 

To  chasten  and  subdue.    And  I  have  felt 

A  presence  that  disturbs  me  with  the  joy 

Of  elevated  thoughts ;  a  sense  sublime 

Of  something  far  more  deeply  interfused, 

Whose  dwelling  is  the  light  of  setting  suns, 

And  the  round  ocean,  and  the  living  air, 


36  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

And  the  blue  sky,  and  in  the  mind  of  man ; 
A  motion  and  a  spirit  that  impels 
All  thinking  things,  all  objects  of  all  thought, 
And  rolls  through  all  things.     Therefore  am  I  still 
A  lover  of  the  meadows,  and  the  woods, 
And  mountains ;  and  of  all  that  we  behold 
From  this  green  earth  ;  of  all  the  mighty  world 
Of  eye  and  ear,  both  what  they  half  create 
And  what  perceive ;  well  pleased  to  recognize 
In  Nature  and  the  language  of  the  sense, 
The  anchor  of  my  purest  thoughts,  the  nurse, 
The  guide,  the  guardian  of  my  heart,  and  soul 
Of  all  my  moral  being. 

Does  not  Wordsworth's  vision  count  ? 

Browning  makes  tremulous  the  deeps  of  every  soul  when  he 
teaches : 

All  I  could  never  be, 
All  men  ignored  in  me, 
That  I  was  worth  to  God. 

Has  Tennyson's  message  no  meaning  when  he  writes : 

If  e'er  when  faith  had  fallen  asleep, 
I  heard  a  voice,  "  Believe  no  more," 


A  warmth  within  the  breast  would  melt 
The  freezing  reason's  colder  part, 
And,  like  a  man  in  wrath,  the  heart 

Stood  up  and  answered,  "I  have  felt." 

This  is  on  Paul's  line.  You  need  not  surrender  your  hope. 
You  may  trust  the  universe.  A  recent  writer1  has  put  it  forcibly 
when  he  says : 

The  spirit  of  the  age  is  saying  to  its  children :  Have  faith.  Make  your- 
self at  home.  This  is  your  own  house.  The  laws  were  made  for  you,  gravi- 
tation and  the  chemical  affinities,  not  you  for  them.  No  one  can  put  you 
out  of  the  house.  Stand  up  ;  the  ceiling  is  high.  ...  If  you  should  act  with 
simplicity  and  boldness,  do  you  think  that  you  would  have  to  stand  alone 
and  take  the  consequences  ?  Have  you  no  idea  that  God  would  back  you  up  ? 

We  have  to  adjust  this  revelation  to  an  entirely  new  group  of 
questions.  What  is  the  relation  of  this  revelation  to  nature  and 
the  stubborn  mechanism  by  which  nature  is  ruled  ?  Has  any  one 
traced  the  process  all  the  way  through  from  molecule  to  man  ? 
Are  there  no  breaks  in  the  continuity  ?  Are  we  yet  at  home  with 
the  doctrine  of  evolution  ?  Paul  found  a  standard  of  value  for 
tithes  and  offerings,  sacrifice  and  ritual.  Has  his  experience  any 

i  Charles  Ferguson,  "  The  Religion  of  Democracy,"  p.  7. 


WESLEYAN  UNIVEESITY  37 

bearing  upon  the  record  of  revelation  as  that  record  has  come  to 
us,  and  upon  the  urgent  Biblical  problems  of  our  day? 

The  debate,  with  reference  to  nature  and  man,  has  gone  on 
throughout  the  ages,  for  the  most  part  under  the  dominance  of 
the  law  of  causality.  It  will  never  be  closed  along  that  line.  We 
cannot  get  through  from  nature  to  man  on  any  line  of  causality. 
Science  informs  us  that  when  we  see  the  colors  of  the  rainbow 
it  is  because  ethereal  wavelets  come  beating  upon  the  delicate 
retina  of  the  eye,  at  the  rate  of  millions  per  second.  "The  color 
red  is  produced  by  474  trillions  vibrations  per  second,  while  vio- 
let is  nearly  an  octave  higher,  699  trillions."  But  ride  never  so 
swiftly,  horsed  on  the  wings  of  light,  when  these  lazy  steeds  cease 
to  be  vibrations  and  become  sensation,  you  have  leaped  a  chasm 
that  was  not  bridged.  That  is  true  of  every  sensation  and  true 
of  the  returning  movement  of  thought  and  volition.  But  nature 
with  her  vast  mechanism  grows  luminous  in  the  light  of  the  doc- 
trine of  values. 

From  the  growing  wheat  field  to  the  shining  stars,  every  bit  of 
nature  stands  up  to  witness  to  the  unity  and  service  which  no 
theory  can  exhaust,  no  poet  can  describe.  And  as  to  evolution, 
we  have  to  ask,  does  this  philosophy  minister  to  the  uses  of  the 
spirit?  A  plastic  world,  a  world  yet  in  the  making,  a  cosmos  of 
powers  in  motion  and  going  somewhere  under  the  dominance  of 
a  righteous  will,  would  seem  to  be  as  serviceable  to  the  life  of  the 
spirit  as  a  universe  struck  into  complete  form  by  a  creative  fiat 
and  then  struck  out  by  an  omnipotent  arm.  And  then  as  to  the 
Book  of  Revelation  we  may  say,  that  when  the  work  of  criticism  is 
complete,  there  will  be  many  gradations  of  value,  but  the  pro- 
jected historical  perspective  will  show  that  the  sceptre  is  in  the 
bleeding  hand  and  the  crown  upon  a  wounded  brow.  We  have 
no  occasion  to  fear  the  theoretical  adjustment  that  is  going  on  in 
our  time,  because  every  accredited  result  is  a  testimony  to  the 
reality  of  an  underlying  structural  moral  order,  and  when  that 
order  is  reached,  you  are  already  on  the  line  of  the  great  prophets 
toward  the  Christ. 

This  is  a  revelation  which  is  yet  to  be  made,  to  our  age.  The 
Christian  employer  must  abide  by  its  spirit,  and  find  ways  to 
make  it  work.  That  is  not  an  easy  task.  There  are  difficulties 
which  no  theorist  can  appreciate.  I  do  not  assume  that  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  undertook  an  easy  task  when  he  undertook  the  sal- 
vation of  this  old  world.  But  he  gave  himself  to  it  with  a  splen- 
dor of  self-abnegation  that  draws  the  whole  world  toward  him. 
I  know  of  no  more  difficult  task  in  the  evolution  of  the  kingdom 
3* 


38  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

of  God  on  the  earth  than  that  of  lifting  this  industrial  age  to  the 
level  of  the  new  revelation.  And  it  is  just  as  difficult  a  task  for 
the  employer  as  for  the  employee.  Do  not  both  put  money  first 
and  manhood  second  I  That  gradation  of  values  will  have  to  be 
changed.  That  gradation  does  not  conform  to  the  revelation  of 
the  Son  of  G-od  in  man.  That  gradation  is  not  in  harmony  with 
the  structural  order  of  the  universe.  Man  is  first  and  all  else  is 
instrumental.  Ceremony  and  sacrifice,  circumcision  and  the  law 
were  all  made  instrumental  by  St.  Paul,  that  the  new  man  might 
be  made  final.  Wesley  valued  the  lay  preacher,  the  class  organi- 
zation, out-of-door  preaching,  the  work  of  women,  the  organiza- 
tion of  Sunday-schools,  and  all  other  agencies  as  means  to  an  end. 
The  end  of  the  gospel  is  sonship.  Manhood  can  never  be  made  a 
means  to  an  end.  The  industrial  unrest  of  our  time  makes  con- 
spicuous the  need  of  the  new  standard.  Neither  does  the  new 
standard  need  the  justification  of  a  working  theory.  It  is  creative 
and  recreative  in  its  own  right  and  will  make  and  unmake  work- 
ing theories  to  fit  the  actual  situation.  Only  let  it  have  its  way. 
Enthrone  him  whose  bleeding  hand  sways  the  sceptre  of  right- 
eousness. That  will  cure  the  greed  of  money.  For  it  is  always 
true  that  five  millions  has  an  insatiable  hunger  to  become  ten. 
That  will  kill  the  beast  in  the  labor  unions,  and  give  right  of 
way  to  the  reason  and  the  moral  purpose  that  are  latent  and 
potent  in  those  unions.  My  friends,  it  is  a  long  road.  Of  that 
you  may  be  very  sure.  Beware  of  the  man  who  thinks  the  goal 
can  be  reached  one  week  from  to-day.  But  the  task  is  upon  us, 
the  way  of  advance  has  been  blazed.  Confident  as  I  am  that  Jesus 
Christ's  programme  stands  for  the  ideal  order  underlying  the 
ages,  just  as  confident  I  am  that  it  works  as  a  social  force  in  the 
institutions  of  our  time,  while  the  age  goes  groaning  on  toward 
the  day  of  the  manifestation  of  the  sons  of  God. 

If  the  Son  of  God  be  revealed  in  us  and  in  our  time,  we  shall 
continue  to  work  at  the  readjustment  which  that  revelation 
always  demands,  and  we  shall  find  in  it  the  only  evangel  that  can 
cure  the  soul,  or  right  the  wrongs  of  this  or  any  other  time. 


ADDRESS  TO  THE  CLASS 

MY  young  friends  and  fellow- workers  in  the  world's  work :  I 
bring  you  again  to-day  the  old,  old  story.    There  is  nothing 
new  under  the  sun.    The  order  underlying  the  world  is  as  old  as 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  39 

the  world  itself.  The  constitutive  structure  of  the  soul  is  as  old 
as  the  soul.  Society  follows  those  fundamental  laws  that  were 
ordained  for  Adam.  And  yet  the  old  order  is  capable  of  and  de- 
mands ever  new  applications.  As  you  go  out  to  play  your  part 
in  the  re-creation  of  the  age,  in  the  making  of  the  new  civilization, 
you  may  well  remember  that  nothing  can  take  the  place  of  the 
old  verities  and  the  old  virtues.  The  essential  religious  verities 
have  never  changed.  They  are  determined  by  the  nature  of  man 
and  the  nature  of  God.  While  they  remain  unchanged,  the  es- 
sential truths  will  remain  unchanged.  Jesus  Christ  has  expressed 
them  in  their  ideal  form.  Neither  can  there  be  any  substitute 
for  the  old-fashioned  virtues.  "Whatsoever  things  are  true, 
whatsoever  things  are  honest,  whatsoever  things  are  just,  what- 
soever things  are  pure,  whatsoever  things  are  lovely,  whatsoever 
things  are  of  good  report;  if  there  be  any  virtue,  and  if  there  be 
any  praise,  think  on  these  things."  Deeper  than  thought  is  right 
feeling.  Sympathy  with  your  fellow-men  Jias  its  genesis  here. 
If  you  are  touched  by  their  woes  and  stirred  by  wrongs  done  to 
them,  you  can  help  them.  If  you  are  not,  you  will  count  for 
little  in  the  re-creative  process  that  is  going  on  in  the  world.  I 
wish,  therefore,  to  commend  to  you  once  more  that  faith  in  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  which  carries  implicit  in  it  right  thought  about 
God,  and  right  feeling  toward  man,  and  which  fosters  the  cultiva- 
tion of  the  spirit  of  the  good  Samaritan  in  the  service  of  your 
fellow-men 


SUNDAY  AFTERNOON 


INTRODUCTORY  ADDRESS 
BY  PRESIDENT  HENRY  ANSON  BUTTZ 


WE  are  met  to-day,  under  the  auspices  of  the  earliest  estab- 
lished university  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  to  do 
honor  to  the  memory  of  the  man,  who,  under  God,  was  the  founder 
of  the  people  called  Methodists.  Two  hundred  years  have  passed 
since  John  Wesley  was  born,  but  he  lives  on  in  the  marvellous 
influence  of  his  life  and  achievements.  It  is  eminently  fitting 
that  an  event  which  calls  to  mind  a  life  largely  moulded  in  a  uni- 
versity should  be  celebrated  by  another  university.  Wesleyan 
University,  in  the  fulness  of  its  vigor  and  success  at  the  opening 
of  the  twentieth  century  greets  Oxford  at  the  opening  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  in  recognition  of  her  illustrious  son.  Wes- 
leyan and  Oxford,  in  the  name  of  John  Wesley  join  hands  to-day 
across  the  chasm  of  two  centuries. 

Certainly  the  celebration,  at  this  time  and  place,  is  an  eminently 
proper  one,  and  may  fittingly  be  designated  as  a  great  celebration. 
It  is  great  in  the  subject  it  commemorates.  John  Wesley,  by  the 
consent  of  Protestant  Christendom  is  in  the  foremost  rank  among 
the  great  men  of  any  age.  He  lives  in  history  by  the  side  of 
Chrysostom  and  Augustine,  Luther  and  Calvin,  Francis  of  Assisi, 
Francis  Xavier,  and  the  reformers  of  the  world.  Viewed  in  any 
aspect,  his  services  to  mankind  have  won  world- wide  recognition. 

It  is  a  celebration  great  in  its  constituents.  Wesleyan  Univer- 
sity in  itself  is  a  constituency  in  this  celebration  well  worthy  of 
the  occasion.  The  first  of  our  universities  bearing  the  name  of 
Wesley,  she  is  the  mother  of  a  multitude  of  other  institutions 
bearing  a  similar  name.  Her  representatives  are  found  doing 
loyal  service  in  every  clime  and  in  every  position — in  the  pulpit, 
in  the  press,  in  the  professor's  chair,  in  the  headship  of  societies 
and  institutions,  in  literature,  in  science,  and  in  art.  Everywhere 
her  influence  has  permeated ;  and  wherever  her  children  are  found 
to-day  they  join  hearts  and  hands  in  spirit  and  interest  in  cele- 
brating the  Bicentennial  of  John  Wesley. 

43 


44  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

It  is  a  fitting  celebration,  also,  in  those  who  have  been  called 
to  represent  it.  She  has  summoned,  not  only  those  in  the  church 
which  Wesley  founded,  but  representatives  of  other  branches  of 
the  Christian  family,  who  willingly  pay  their  tribute  to  our  illus- 
trious founder.  Thus  this  occasion  rises  above  a  mere  Methodist 
celebration,  and  assumes  the  broad  position  of  Christian.  The  hon- 
ored names  of  those  who  have  come  to  address  us  afford  a  worthy 
setting  for  this  historic  event. 

The  connection  of  a  great  university  with  what  was  originally 
purely  a  religious  movement  is  apparent.  True  religion  has  ever 
been  associated  with  high  scholarship.  The  happy  combination 
of  deep  piety  and  sound  learning  in  the  Founder  of  Methodism  is 
the  inheritance  of  John  Wesley's  descendants,  and  is  happily 
illustrated  on  this  occasion. 

The  speaker,  at  this  time,  is  the  honored  Secretary  of  the  Board 
of  Education  of  the  church  which  John  Wesley  founded  in  this 
country,  and  combines,  in  his  relation  to  our  whole  educational 
work  and  in  his  personal  position  as  a  scholar  and  theologian, 
the  qualities  which  fit  him  so  eminently  to  speak  on  the  topic 
which  has  been  assigned  to  him  for  this  hour.  I  have  now  the 
honor  to  present  the  Rev.  William  Fraser  McDowell,  Doctor  of 
Philosophy,  Doctor  of  Sacred  Theology,  Corresponding  Secretary 
of  the  Board  of  Education  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
who  will  address  us  on  "The  Significance  of  Wesley  and  the 
Methodist  Movement." 


ADDRESS  BY 

THE  KEVEREND  WILLIAM  FRASER  MCDOWELL 

* 
J>i0rafkantt  of  UDegiep  anfc  tf>e 


T?MERSON  does  not  include  John  Wesley  in  his  list  of  "Repre- 
J-J  sentative  Men."  Carlyle  does  not  worship  him  in  the  vol- 
ume on  "Heroes."  Nevertheless,  many  excellent  people  in  both 
England  and  America  now  "  seek  to  resuscitate  an  ancient  hero- 
ism "  by  the  study  of  his  life,  the  analysis  of  his  character,  the 


WILLIAM  FRASER  MCDOWELL 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  45 

portrayal  of  his  achievements,   and  the  interpretation   of  his 
significance. 

We  take  our  anniversaries  rather  gaily,  as  a  rule,  but  I  think 
we  are  disposed  to  take  this  one  with  commendable  seriousness. 
We  seek  to  interpret  the  man  and  the  movement  as  we  would 
interpret  any  noble  history,  life  or  literature,  in  order  that  life 
itself  may  be  increased  in  nobility  thereby.  We  do  not  forget 
that 

They  who  on  glorious  ancestry  enlarge, 
Produce  their  debt  instead  of  their  discharge. 

It  is  a  solemn  thing  to  be  a  Methodist  in  this  year  of  our  Lord. 

The  significance  of  the  man  is  not  quite  the  same  as  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  movement.  Historic  Methodism  on  both  sides  of  the 
sea  is  like  historic  Christianity,  the  resultant  of  many  forces. 
Every  such  movement  adds  to  and  takes  from  its  founder's  contri- 
bution. Except  in  the  case  of  Christianity,  the  movement  is 
usually  better  and  worse  than  the  primitive  thing.  It  is  easy  and 
common  to  read  into  the  Christianity  of  Christ  its  later  accretions, 
and  to  attribute  to  Him  what  we  think  vital  and  precious.  We 
are  prone  to  identify  our  Methodism  with  Mr.  Wesley's.  Every 
wildest  vagary  either  in  doctrine  or  form  seeks  to  approve 
itself  by  assuming  to  be  the  only  pure  and  primitive  thing.  The 
Christianity  most  marked  by  unreason  and  excess  most  loudly 
claims  to  be  the  Christianity  of  Christ.  Every  reform  assumes  to 
be  a  return,  and  every  departure  a  restoration.  The  most  wild- 
eyed  and  unhistoric  manifestations  in  our  Methodist  history  have 
most  zealously  used  the  name  of  our  founder.  One  is  almost 
warranted  in  suspecting  any  brand  either  of  Methodism  or  Chris- 
tianity making  special  pretension  to  represent  exclusively  the 
mind  either  of  Wesley  or  of  Christ.  All  of  which  makes  it  neces- 
sary to  understand  the  man  and  the  movement.  He  is  not  a 
pillar  of  stone  to  which  a  church  is  to  be  tied  while  it  marks  time; 
but  a  pillar  of  fire  and  of  cloud  to  guide  a  church  forever  on  the 
march.  Zion  has  only  occasional  use  for  an  anchor.  We  look 
backward  to-day  that  we  may  go  forward  to-morrow. 

Methodism  has  had  its  largest,  I  will  not  say  its  best  develop- 
ment, on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  The  political  and  religious 
children  of  those  two  villages,  Scrooby  and  Epworth,  in  adjoining 
shires,  are  far  more  numerous  in  the  new  world  than  in  the  old. 
It  is  fair  to  test  the  tree  both  by  the  quality  and  the  amount  of 
its  fruit.  The  Puritan  descendants  of  Elder  William  Brewster 


46  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

and  the  Methodist  descendants  of  John  Wesley  must  bear  this 
double  test.  I  think  they  can.  It  is  worth  something  to  the 
world  that  the  Puritan  spirit  is  both  good  and  widespread,  and 
that  the  Methodist  spirit  is  both  wholesome  and  abundant.  I 
cannot  help  being  glad  that  we  are  as  big  as  we  are,  and  thankful 
that  with  all  our  faults  we  are  as  good  as  we  are.  The  value  of 
love  depends  both  upon  its  size  and  its  kind. 

In  that  very  fruitful  little  book,  "  What  Shall  We  Think  of 
Christianity  ?  "  the  author  says  that  Jesus  left  three  things  :  "  A 
people,  a  teaching,  and  a  power."  So  he  did,  but  he  left  chiefly 
a  Person.  The  people  gathered  about  him,  the  teaching  centred 
in  him,  the  power  came  from  him.  The  understanding  of  Chris- 
tianity begins  with  an  understanding  of  Jesus  Christ.  The 
understanding  of  the  Reformation  begins  with  an  understanding 
of  the  Reformers;  of  the  Republic,  with  a  knowledge  of  the 
Fathers  ;  and  of  Methodism,  with  an  understanding  of  the  man 
born  two  hundred  years  ago  in  that  English  rectory. 

It  is  easy  to  misunderstand  him.  One  could  make  a  very 
humorous  sketch  of  John  Wesley,  or  exhibit  his  weaknesses  and 
foibles  in  such  fashion  as  to  make  a  fine  foil  for  his  virtues. 
It  is  not  necessary.  They  said  that  Mr.  Lincoln  had  big  hands, 
made  jokes,  did  not  know  how  to  bow,  and  that  his  clothes 
did  not  fit  him,  —  and  all  that  was  true  ;  but,  measured  by  his  char- 
acter and  his  achievements,  he  was  one  of  the  tallest  white 
angels  seen  in  civil  life  in  a  thousand  years.  It  is  said  of  Mr. 
Wesley  that  he  was  credulous,  superstitious,  and  inconsistent; 
that  his  science,  his  medicine,  and  his  politics  all  went  often 
astray;  and  many  a  merry  jibe  is  made  against  his  matrimonial 
bungling.  It  is  all  true;  but  measured  by  his  character,  his 
purposes,  his  activities  and  his  achievements,  I  believe  he  was 
the  most  apostolic  man  seen  on  our  planet  since  St.  Paul. 

I  may  be  permitted  to  speak  of  him  especially  for  the  student 
life  of  the  Church  and  thus  interpret  his  significance  for  that 
life  to  which  he  is  peculiarly  related,  under  the  three  vast  terms, 
saint,  prophet,  and  evangelist. 


1.  lohn      eskg  the  Saint. 

Macaulay  said  Wesley  had  a  genius  for  government,  which 
was  true.  Matthew  Arnold  said  he  had  a  genius  for  godliness, 
which  is  doubtful.  It  is  our  easy  fashion  to  credit  certain  men 
with  extraordinary  capacity  for  saintliness,  enlarging  the  allow- 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  47 

ance  to  nature,  reducing  the  demand  upon  grace.  But  if  we 
analyze  Mr.  Wesley's  saintliness,  we  shall  find  present  every  ele- 
ment to  be  found  in  the  life  of  every  other  religious  man.  He 
was  good  ground,  but  that  he  became  a  saint  was  not  due  to 
his  natural  goodness  or  virtue,  but  to  the  work  of  God  in  him. 
This  is  our  joy,  that  he  was  no  angel,  but  a  true  man.  This 
is  our  shame,  that  with  like  nature  and  the  same  Spirit  the 
saint  is  now  so  rare,  though  perhaps  not  so  rare  as  he  seems. 
For  the  true  saint  is  a  living  man  on  the  highways,  not  a  dead 
one  in  the  grave  nor  an  angel  on  the  heights.  Whatever  Mr. 
Wesley  seemed,  he  was  a  saint  in  the  midst  of  his  contempo- 
raries. 

Right  interesting  is  the  history  of  it,  and  very  instructive. 
Thomas  a  Kempis,  Jeremy  Taylor,  and  William  Law  early  came 
into  his  life.  Under  their  influence  he  made  high  and  suggestive 
resolutions.  It  thrills  the  heart  of  a  young  collegian  or  recent 
graduate  to  see  this  son  of  Christ  Church  solemnly  writing  these 
words:  "I  saw  that  simplicity  of  intention  and  purity  of  affec- 
tion, one  design  in  all  we  speak  and  do,  and  one  desire  ruling 
all  our  tempers,  are  indeed  the  wings  of  the  soul  without  which 
she  cannot  ascend  to  God.  I  sought  after  this  from  that  hour." 
And  again:  "In  reading  several  parts  of  the  'Holy  Living  and 
Dying7  I  was  exceedingly  affected.  I  resolved  to  dedicate  all 
my  life  to  God — all  my  thoughts  and  words  and  actions — 
being  thoroughly  conscious  that  there  was  no  medium,  but  that 
every  part  of  my  life,  not  some  only,  must  either  be  a  sacrifice 
to  God  or  myself — that  is  in  effect  the  Devil."  The  way  be- 
fore him  is  a  long  and  weary  way  yet ;  it  is  a  far  cry  from  this 
affecting  moment  of  this  young  man's  consecration  to  that  jubi- 
lant hour  thirteen  years  later  when  a  man  of  thirty-five  felt  his 
"heart  strangely  warmed"  within  him.  More  than  sixty  years 
stretch  out  before  that  youth  turning  his  back  upon  himself,  but 
an  unbroken  line  runs  straight  through  his  ever  enlarging  life. 
In  youth  he  chose  God  and  rejected  self,  and  God  gave  him  rich 
reward.  It  is  to  such  that  God  so  gives  himself  in  life  that  in 
death  they  can  cry  out,  "The  best  of  all  is,  God  is  with  us."  His 
heart  was  set  upon  God,  and,  in  consequence,  God  was  set  within 
his  heart.  Trained  in  a  mechanical  philosophy  and  surrounded 
by  a  hard  theology,  he  leaped  the  bounds  of  both.  It  was  the 
fashion  of  his  times,  and  at  first  it  was  his  fashion,  to  measure 
life  by  logic  or  in  terms  of  weights  and  measures ;  but  John 
Wesley,  the  teacher  of  logic,  put  life  into  logic,  exalted  life 


48  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

above  logic  and  threw  syllogism  to  the  winds  while  he  went  out 
like  Bunyan's  man,  crying  "Life,  life,  life!"  He  lived  in  the 
face  of  the  most  logical  system  of  theology  ever  wrought  out, 
but  rose  mightily  over  it  and  victoriously  rode  it  down,  being 
filled  with  an  experience  of  the  direct  life  of  God  in  his  soul 
and  a  belief  in  that  direct  life  for  all  souls.  He  found  the  wine- 
skins of  religion  beautifully  arranged  in  perfect  order,  and  men 
so  taken  up  with  the  wine-skins  that  they  had  lost  the  taste  of 
the  wine.  But  this  Oxford  scholar  one  night,  May  24th,  1738, 
got  a  taste  of  the  new  wine  of  religious  life.  He  liked  it.  He 
became  as  a  giant  refreshed.  Life  looked  better  than  form.  He 
left  us  no  worn-out  wine-skins,  but  from  his  day  we  have 
known  where  to  find  the  true  wine  of  the  Kingdom. 

The  age  was  mechanical  and  indifferent.  It  is  not  necessary 
to  characterize  it  again.  The  two  most  familiar  texts  were : 
"Let  your  moderation  be  known  unto  all  men,"  and  "Be  not 
righteous  overmuch."  The  age  was  taking  many  of  its  greatest 
questions  in  a  shallow  and  half-hearted  spirit.  Hume  and  Sam 
Johnson  in  England,  and  Voltaire  in  France  were  apostles  and 
expressions  of  the  age.  Carlyle  called  Hume  and  Johnson  "  the 
half  men  of  their  time."  Wesley  created  an  atmosphere  in  which 
the  age  had  to  take  its  questions  seriously.  Leslie  Stephen  says 
that  "  Warburton  trimmed  Hume's  jacket  for  not  believing  in 
the  miracles,  and  belabored  Wesley  for  believing  that  they  were 
not  extinct.  He  denounced  Wesley  for  his  folly  and  impiety  in 
believing  that  God  might  do  in  the  eighteenth  century  what  He 
had  done  in  the  first.  And  Wesley  succeeded  where  Warburton 
failed  just  because  his  God — whether  a  true  God  or  not — was  at 
least  a  living  God,  whereas  Warburton's  had  sunk  into  a  mere 
heap  of  verbal  formularies." 

In  this  barren  age  suddenly  a  new  voice  was  heard  because  a 
new  experience  had  come.  A  saint  got  loose  in  England.  He  did 
not  hie  to  a  cave  to  become  a  hermit,  nor  to  a  cell  to  become  a 
monk  so  as  to  nurture  his  sainthood.  In  Lincoln  College  cloven 
tongues  like  as  of  fire  were  seen  upon  scholars.  In  Aldersgate 
Street  there  was  the  sound  of  a  rushing  mighty  wind.  The  super- 
natural got  on  foot ;  it  descended  to  the  upper  room  and  from 
the  upper  room  it  walked  abroad  into  prisons,  lanes  and  mines. 
Once  more  young  men  at  the  opening  of  their  careers  said  rever- 
ently :  tl  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me!  " 

Many  a  wrinkle  Mr.  Wesley  shook  out  of  his  views  in  sixty 
years ;  many  an  inch  he  grew ;  many  an  opinion  he  left  far  behind. 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  49 

Under  the  influence  of  the  new  life  he  threw  off  the  philosophical 
method  and  spirit  of  his  time  with  its  mechanisms,  its  measuring 
rods  and  its  almanacs.  Trees  bloomed  and  bore  fruit  in  season, 
out  of  season.  All  seasons  and  all  soils  became  theirs.  If  Metho- 
dism had  not  struck  the  note  of  the  witness  of  the  Spirit,  "the  un- 
changing and  un wasting  miracle  reaching  from  Pentecost  to  the 
backwoods";  if  it  had  not  proclaimed  the  fact  of  the  living  God 
and  the  glorious  gospel  of  a  perfect  Saviour  with  a  full  and  uni- 
versal salvation  ;  if  it  had  not  declared  sainthood  for  every  man 
through  Jesus  Christ  —  it  would  never  have  conquered  a  human 
soul.  It  will  not  conquer  another  soul  except  where  it  strikes 
these  notes  again  and  again.  This  was  the  issue  once,  it  is  the 
issue  still. 

I  have  referred  more  than  once  to  Mr.  Wesley's  mighty  utter- 
ance, "  The  Character  of  a  Methodist."  No  more  significant,  no 
more  autobiographical  utterance  was  ever  made  by  him.  In  call- 
ing Mr.  Wesley  a  saint,  I  have  had  this  document  in  mind.  It 
seems  to  describe  him.  It  is  a  noble  plea  for  freedom  and  toler- 
ance because  only  in  this  atmosphere  is  sainthood  possible.  Mr. 
Wesley  was  such  a  tolerant  man  because  he  was  such  a  large 
man.  But  this  noble  document  is  one  of  the  wisest  and  strongest 
ever  penned  in  our  history.  It  is  a  plea  for  liberty,  but  it  is  far 
more.  It  is  a  magnificent  statement  of  the  rights  of  thought,  but 
it  is  vastly  more.  It  is  the  charter  of  our  best  intellectual  free- 
dom, but  it  is  much  more.  Its  great  notes  strike  again  those  im- 
mortal tones  which  ring  in  the  words  of  Jesus  and  Saint  John 
and  Saint  Paul.  It  is  not  an  academic  treatise  on  religious  lib- 
erty, but  an  apostolic  call  for  freedom,  Christlikeness  and  social 
service.  It  is  not  the  calm  utterance  of  one  calmly  announcing 
the  conceded  truth  of  theory.  It  is  the  burning  utterance  of  one 
who  has  breathed  the  upper  air  in  Christ's  presence,  who  seeks  to 
incarnate  Christ's  spirit  and  to  make  Christ's  truth  of  immediate 
account.  There  is  in  this  rare  document  such  reliance  upon  G-od, 
such  communion  with  him,  such  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  such 
an  atmosphere  of  prayer,  purity  and  obedience ;  there  are  such 
love  and  strength  and  thanksgiving,  such  holy  conformity  to 
fundamental  Christianity,  to  the  mind  and  method  of  Jesus ; 
such  high  union  with  all  who  love  our  Lord  in  sincerity  and 
truth,  such  comfort  of  love  and  fellowship  of  the  Spirit;  there 
are  at  last  such  Biblical  conceptions  of  the  Christian's  privilege, 
life  and  duty,  such  devotion  to  the  will  of  God  in  personal  and 
social  redemption,  such  visions  of  righteousness,  joy  and  peace, 
4 


50  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

such  confidence  in  one  God  and  Father  of  all,  as  makes  this  docu- 
ment an  immortal  and  imperial  document  upon  which  the  people 
called  Methodists  could  joyfully  unite  while  they  go  forward,  not 
in  strife,  but  in  unity  for  the  conquest  of  the  world  for  Christ. 
Liberty  of  opinion,  but  not  liberty  to  destroy  the  root  of  Chris- 
tianity; liberty  in  which  to  live,  but  not  license  in  which  to  ruin; 
liberty  that  one  may  develop  the  Christlike  character  and  render 
the  Christlike  service — this  is  what  Mr.  Wesley  claimed  for  himself 
and  secured  for  us.  Without  freedom  we  cannot  be  saints.  The 
end  of  freedom  is  the  saintly  life  and  the  saintly  service.  Free- 
dom, tolerance,  largeness,  Christlikeness  in  life  and  devotion  — 
these  are  the  marks  our  Saint  John  bore.  It  was  not  monastic 
nor  ascetic,  but  living  and  vital  in  itself  and  toward  others. 

Dean  Stanley  said:  "I  asked  an  old  man  who  showed  the 
cemetery  at  City  Road  Chapel,  'By  whom  was  this  cemetery  con- 
secrated?' And  he  answered:  'It  was  consecrated  by  the  bones 
of  that  holy  man,  that  holy  servant  of  God,  John  Wesley.'"  But 
he  has  done  far  more  and  better  than  that.  It  is  the  province  of 
a  saint  not  chiefly  to  consecrate  the  yards  where  dead  men  are 
buried,  but  the  towns  and  cities  where  living  men  live.  This  man 
who  dwelt  in  God,  and  in  whom  God  dwelt,  this  man  whom  I 
have  called  a  saint  this  day,  has  made  the  streets  of  a  thousand 
cities  and  towns  safer  for  tempted  men  and  women,  and  for  little 
children.  His  sainthood  has  sanctified  death,  but  it  has  chiefly 
sanctified  life.  He  might  have  been  a  Hellenist,  creating  for  us  a 
new  Renaissance,  but  in  a  country  full  of  old  and  stately  cathe- 
drals, crowned  with  venerable  and  noble  universities,  he  did  be- 
come a  living  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  He  went  up  the  rugged 
steeps  while  his  countrymen  stayed  below,  and  he  saw  again  God 
face  to  face.  When  he  came  down  he  knew  not  that  the  skin  of 
his  own  face  shone.  But  under  him  religion  ceased  to  be  a  thing 
of  indifference  and  became  an  intense  passion;  it  ceased  to  be  a 
merely  personal  matter  and  became  an  intense  social  force.  He 
restored  pure  and  saving  belief  in  Christ.  He  made  it  a  great 
emotion  and  a  vital  force  in  the  life  of  the  world. 

A  youth  of  twenty-two  wearing  an  Oxford  gown,  bending  low 
over  his  desk,  solemnly  and  irrevocably  dedicates  himself  to  the 
perfect  service  of  Almighty  God,  as  Charles  Kingsley  at  Cambridge 
did  long  afterward.  A  man  of  thirty-five,  a  scholar  and  teacher, 
listens  in  lowly  chapel  to  the  words  of  the  great  Protestant  Re- 
former on  the  words  of  the  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles,  and  feels  his 
heart  strangely  warmed;  then  for  more  than  half  a  century  this 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  51 

scholar,  become  a  saint,  exemplifies  and  declares  God's  grace  in 
the  most  apostolic  career  ever  seen  in  England.  A  white-haired 
man  nearly  ninety  years  of  age  is  surrounded  by  friends  and 
helpers,  to  whom  he  whispers  and  shouts:  "The  best  of  all  is, 
God  is  with  us."  It  makes  the  heart  beat  fast  just  to  say  these 
words.  May  the  ever-living  Spirit  of  the  ever-living  God  fall 
upon  us  in  youth,  in  manhood  and  in  age,  making  us  saints  in 
ourselves,  saints  among  men,  and  saints  toward  God  forever. 


2.  lohtt      esUg  as  a 

He  is  dead,  and  the  use  of  this  word  will  not  spoil  or  kill  him. 
It  has  seemed  rather  a  dangerous  thing  to  call  living  men 
prophets  in  modern  times.  The  term  has  turned  the  heads  of 
many.  "We  have  not  many  larger  words  to  apply  to  men,  nor 
many  which  we  do  apply  more  loosely.  Nevertheless,  this  suits 
my  purpose  in  the  attempt  to  discover  and  interpret  Wesley  and 
his  movement  to  our  own  age. 

This  being  a  prophet  is  partly  a  thing  of  knowledge  and  partly 
a  thing  of  temper.  The  prophet  brings  not  necessarily  a  new 
message,  only  necessarily  a  true  and  living  one;  not  necessarily 
an  accurate  prediction  of  the  future,  but  necessarily  a  true 
knowledge  of  the  present.  People  perish  not  because  they  have 
lost  the  vision  of  the  future,  but  because  they  have  lost  the  vision 
of  God  and  reality.  The  prophet  must  meet  his  own  age  with  an 
accurate  knowledge  and  a  prophetic  temper.  He  must  interpret 
it  to  itself  and  interpret  God  to  it.  He  must  rescue  it  from 
unreality  and  fill  it  with  the  real.  He  must  make  God  real  and 
living  to  a  time  that  has  forgotten  him.  It  is  only  to  such  true 
and  timely  men  as  Isaiah  that  God  gives  any  visions  of  the 
future.  Mr.  Wesley  had  the  prophetic  knowledge  and  the  pro- 
phetic temper. 

In  a  brief  introduction  to  the  "  Character  of  a  Methodist"  these 
words  occur  : 

A  truly  prophetic  utterance  contains  a  living  message  for  its  own  times 
and  for  all  times  ;  it  possesses  both  timeliness  and  permanence.  These  two 
qualities  belong  to  all  great  literature,  whether  in  the  Bible  or  out  of  it.  Re- 
ligious classics  like  "The  Pilgrim's  Progress"  have  these  characteristics. 
Such  an  utterance,  this  paper,  written  at  a  critical  time  by  the  human  founder 
of  Methodism,  will  be  seen  to  be.  To  the  men  and  women  of  the  eighteenth 
century  it  came  as  from  a  true  prophet  of  the  Most  High.  To  the  men  and 
women  of  the  twentieth  century  it  will  sound  as  "  one  clear  call  "summoning 


52  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

"the  people  called  Methodists"  to  a  larger  life  of  freedom,  wisdom,  and 
power,  spirituality,  devotion,  and  service.  It  is  an  inspiration,  a  .rebuke  and 
a  comfort.  It  is  so  sane,  so  Biblical,  so  Christlike ;  it  is  in  such  touch  with 
the  times  and  with  the  eternities;  it  has  such  ''length  and  breadth  and 
height "  that  upon  it  we  can  all  unite  as  we  gratefully  pass  out  of  one  century 
and  joyfully  enter  another  in  faith  and  love  for  holy  living  and  holy  service 
to  God  and  mankind. 

Timeliness  and  permanence, — a  man  of  the  age  and  a  man  of 
the  ages, — there  are  other  terms  necessary  but  surely  these  are 
correct.  Mr.  Wesley  was  a  man  of  his  own  age  and  not  another. 
It  is  our  easy  and  careless  fashion  to  say  that  men  of  note  are  a 
hundred  years  ahead  of  their  times.  But  such  men  are  as  use- 
less to  their  times  as  though  they  were  a  hundred  years  behind. 
The  prophets  were  first  of  all  prophets  to  their  own  contempora- 
ries. The  more  useful  they  were  to  their  own  times,  the  less  they 
would  bear  transplanting  to  another  time.  We  speak  not  wisely, 
however  poetically,  in  saying: 

Milton,  thou  shouldst  be  living  at  this  hour. 

There  is  a  fulness  of  times  into  which  men  come.  The  eighteenth 
century  was  such  a  time  for  John  Wesley.  I  think  he  would 
not  fit  so  well  in  ours.  Soberly,  with  chastened  resignation,  but 
not  mournfully,  I  observed  with  you  a  dozen  years  ago  the 
hundredth  anniversary  of  his  death. 

He  has  become  a  man  of  all  times  partly  because  he  was  such 
a  man  to  his  own.  How  well  he  understood  it,  and  how  true  he 
was  to  it !  His  science  was  the  science  of  a  progressive  man  of 
his  day.  His  notions  of  government  were  the  notions  of  his  day 
with  a  note  of  sincerity,  righteousness  and  progress  added.  He 
knew  his  England  in  its  weakness  and  wickedness ;  he  knew  it 
in  its  strength  and  goodness.  He  had  visions  and  was  no  vision- 
ary; he  dreamed  dreams  and  was  no  dreamer.  Like  the  old 
prophets,  the  most  useful  men  in  Israel,  "  he  walked  in  the  high- 
way of  history  and  the  main  traveled  road  of  common  life." 
Like  them,  "  the  common  life  was  to  him  the  main  staple  of  all 
life.  Their  race  was  run  in  the  dust  and  the  heat  of  the  com- 
mon day."  Like  them  he  brought  high  things  down  to  men  and 
set  the  highest  truth  about  God  and  man  on  foot  among  the  men 
he  knew.  His  knowledge  of  his  times  alone  would  not  have 
made  him  a  prophet,  but  without  it  he  would  not  have  been  one. 

How  sane  he  was !  He  never  forced  providence  nor  took  the 
government  of  the  world  into  his  hands.  His  credulity  is 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  53 

charming,  his  naiveU  refreshing,  but  his  sterling  sense  is  as  brac- 
ing as  a  mountain  breeze.  It  has  been  pointed  out  that  he  did 
not  originate  the  Holy  Club ;  his  brother  Charles  did  that.  He 
did  not  inaugurate  prison  visitation ;  he  followed  Morgan  in  that. 
He  did  not  discover  the  doctrine  of  assurance ;  he  learned  that 
from  Spangenberg.  He  did  not  begin  lay  preaching;  Thomas 
Maxfield  taught  him  that.  He  learned  field  preaching  from 
Whitefield,  and  got  his  ideas  of  band  meetings  from  the  Mora- 
vians. He  did  not  originate  the  Arminian  theology.  But  this 
true  prophet,  with  an  eye  to  what  was  timely,  met  these  simple 
ideas  and  agencies  on  the  highway  and  made  them  vital,  organic, 
current,  and  useful.  He  knew  his  England.  He  had  felt  the 
touch  of  mysticism  and  of  asceticism,  but  no  more  practical  man 
walked  or  rode  between  his  island's  green  hedgerows  for  a  hun- 
dred years  than  this  man.  He  had  strength  because  of  his  like- 
ness as  well  as  his  unlikeness  to  his  times. 

He  was  a  man  of  all  ages.  Joseph  Parker  called  Jesus  "  the 
contemporary  of  all  ages."  It  is  given  to  other  men  to  be  charac- 
teristic, it  is  given  only  to  Him  to  be  universal.  But  your  true 
prophet  is  more  than  a  man  of  his  own  times.  England  was  full 
of  such,  and  the  eighteenth  century  was  desolate  enough.  Mr. 
Wesley  did  not  see  the  end  from  the  beginning,  but  he  laid  hold 
of  those  truths  for  man  and  society  which  are  eternal.  England 
suddenly  awoke  to  hear  what  she  needed  to  hear,  and  hear  then, 
but  the  message  was  timely  because  it  was  eternal.  It  contained 
no  echoes  from  an  older  world  nor  the  unknown  accents  of  a 
world  not  yet  come.  Your  prophet  is  no  echo.  Your  prophet  is 
no  sibyl.  These  are  the  very  tones  of  Isaiah  and  Micah,  Jeremiah 
and  John  Baptist,  Jesus  and  St.  Paul.  In  these  tones  timeless 
men  speak  to  their  times  and  to  all  times.  Hearing  them,  men 
understand  that  a  thousand  years  are  as  one  day.  Hearing  them, 
to-day  is  suddenly  flooded  with  might  from  yesterday  and  with 
radiance  from  to-morrow.  Hearing  such  men,  colliers  and  pris- 
oners become  citizens  of  a  kingdom  without  beginning  or  end. 
Hearing  these  tones,  the  high  and  the  low  cry  out  with  Browning: 

What's  time  ?    Leave  now  for  dogs  and  apes,— 
Man  has  forever. 

Hearing  them,  common  men  gird  themselves  as  with  the  power 
of  an  endless  life,  and  understand  how  "  the  feeling  of  immortality 
depends  not  upon  an  argument  for  it  concluded,  but  upon  a  sense 
of  it  begotten."  These  prophets,  men  of  their  age,  men  of  the 
4* 


54  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

ages,  bring  not  simply  a  new  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness, 
they  bring  a  new  humanity  clothed  with  salvation  and  light  to 
people  the  streets.  For  these  men  of  the  age  and  of  the  ages  are 
men  of  the  Spirit  with  the  power  to  make  things  real. 

Not  everything  of  Mr.  Wesley's  will  stand  being  lifted  into  a 
gospel.  He  did  not  think  it  would.  It  would  be  easy  and  hard 
to  classify  him  as  a  conservative  or  as  a  radical.  I  think  he  was 
neither  and  both,  and  better  than  either.  He  made  an  atmosphere 
in  which  conservative  and  radical  could  live  together  the  life  of 
the  Spirit.  Startling  sentences  can  be  gathered  from  his  writings. 
It  would  not  be  easy  to  find  in  his  writings  a  philosophy  of  history 
or  criticism  or  a  science  of  social  redemption,  but  it  would  be 
hard  not  to  find  in  this  prophetic  man's  life  and  work  an  atmos- 
phere in  which  every  missionary  in  the  slums  and  every  devout 
scholar  in  the  college  may  dwell.  This  is  what  comes  of  his 
living  the  life  of  the  Spirit.  He  was  more  than  a  student  of  his 
times,  more  than  a  student  of  history,  more  than  a  pious  recluse, 
as  the  true  prophet  is  always  more  than  these. 

It  is  said  of  John  Wycliffe  that  in  translating  the  English 
Bible  "he  lifted  the  roofs  of  the  lowly  English  cottages  and  made 
them  take  in  heights  beyond  the  stars."  This  prophet  of  ours  did 
that  again.  Remember  that  for  more  than  fifty  years  England 
heard  a  living  voice  and  saw  a  living,  passionate  presence.  He 
spoke  to  uncounted  thousands.  They  saw  the  flash  of  his  eye 
and  heard  his  tones  and  words.  They  saw  a  living  definition  of 
prophet  and  apostle,  while  this  man  burned  himself  out  pleading  for 
a  holy  manhood  and  a  righteous  nation.  And  the  living  voice  and 
presence  did  what  no  printed  page  could  have  done.  The  preacher 
still  has  a  place  which  cannot  be  taken  by  the  editor  or  the 
pamphleteer.  His  world  was  like  ours.  Men  were  interested  in 
religion  as  a  topic;  he  made  it  live.  Men  patronized  Christianity 
as  a  cult  and  a  doctrine;  he  proclaimed  it  as  an  evangel.  Nobody 
was  saying  anything  great,  or  had  anything  very  great  to  say, 
when  upon  the  fat  hearts  and  dull  ears  of  England  he  spoke 
like  a  Hebrew  prophet  or  a  Christian  apostle,  come  to  life.  The 
churches  were  all  odious  with  formularies  and  smooth  words, 
when  suddenly  this  prophet  so  set  religious  reality  loose  in 
England,  on  foot  and  on  horseback,  that  it  has  girdled  the  world. 
A  material  age  got  for  fifty  years  a  vision  of  what  the  super- 
natural could  do  with  a  consecrated  scholar.  Unspoiled  by  self- 
consciousness,  unhindered  by  selfishness  or  laziness,  this  prophet 
brought  religion  off  the  shelves,  out  of  the  cloisters  and  out  of 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  55 

the  skies,  and  set  the  common  men  walking  in  the  ways  of  the 
Great  Companion.  A  saint  by  God's  grace,  he  became  the  prophet 
of  personal  and  social  sainthood  to  mankind. 

3.  lohn  Ukskn  as  an  (Duangclist. 

It  is  a  noble  word  much  abused.  Still,  let  us  use  it,  trying  to 
recover  its  apostolic  sense.  A  saint,  a  prophet,  an  evangelist: 
these  three  great  terms  can  be  applied  to  only  a  few  men  in 
human  history.  Sainthood,  leadership,  gospel — all  these  marks 
are  in  the  Methodist  movement.  They  include  its  rhapsody, 
its  experience,  its  teaching,  its  people,  its  machinery,  and  its 
power. 

One  cannot  help  comparing  him  with  Saint  Paul.  One  born 
in  the  Jewish  Church,  loved  it;  the  other  born  in  the  English 
Church,  loved  it.  To  one  came  a  blinding  light  and  a  divine 
voice;  to  the  other  that  strange  warming  of  the  heart.  Each 
thought  tenderly  of  and  would  have  saved  the  church  in  which 
he  was  born.  One  was  driven  to  the  Gentiles;  the  other  founded 
the  Methodists.  Neither  saw  the  end  from  the  beginning,  or 
chose  it.  Each  was  driven  to  it  by  divine  compulsion.  The  new 
wine  required  new  wine-skins  for  Saint  Paul  as  for  Wesley.  Each 
hesitated  and  tried  to  shift  the  weight  of  logic  without  denying 
the  truth.  Each  was  a  chosen  and  willing  vessel  at  last  for 
larger  things  than  he  dreamed.  It  is  God's  way  with  men  whom 
he  chooses.  Neither  figures  large  in  his  own  thought  of  the 
future.  Each  becomes  larger  with  every  passing  year.  Each 
was  a  true  evangelist  in  his  spirit. 

"  If  kings  were  philosophers  or  if  philosophers  were  kings,  we 
should  have  an  ideal  state,"  says  Plato.  If  scholars  were  evange- 
lists or  if  evangelists  were  scholars,  we  should  have  a  more  nearly 
ideal  church.  These  terms  have  been  regarded  as  mutually  ex- 
clusive, to  the  great  loss  of  the  Kingdom.  But  here  was  a  scholar 
with  the  missionary  temper ;  a  philosopher  who  became  a  philan- 
thropist, a  man  of  thought  who  became  a  man  of  action,  a  man 
of  devotion  who  became  a  man  of  deeds.  The  competent  became 
the  zealot,  the  master  of  high  thought  the  lord  of  high  deeds. 
His  breadth  was  also  deep,  and  passionate  with  ethical  and  prac- 
tical earnestness.  Adjectives  are  not  needed.  They  would  be  an 
impertinence  here  as  in  Saint  Paul's  autobiography.  One  day 
Wesley  wrote :  "  Leisure  and  I  have  taken  leave  of  each  other." 
Then  Sam  Johnson  said :  "  Wesley's  conversation  is  good,  but  he 


56  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

is  never  at  leisure.  He  is  always  obliged  to  go  at  a  certain 
hour.  This  is  very  disagreeable  to  a  man  who  loves  to  fold  his 
legs  and  have  his  talk  out,  as  I  do."  But  Johnson  was  a  half 
man  and  did  not  understand,  any  more  than  Pilate  understood 
the  moral  earnestness  of  Jesus.  "  Wesley  knew  the  dark  places  of 
England.  They  were  on  his  mind  and  conscience.  He  could  not 
sit,  even  in  high  talk  with  Johnson,  while  men  and  women  must 
be  saved."  He  was  said  to  be  deficient  in  speculative  insight,  but 
not  in  the  power  to  stir  the  stagnating  currents  of  human  life. 
It  has  remained  to  us  to  be  more  philosophical  and  less  moving. 
The  cure  is  not  less  philosophy  but  more  motion.  Life  lacks 
projective  force.  He  never  caught  up  with  his  own  plans  nor 
overtook  his  own  horizon  nor  lost  the  motive  or  projective  force 
out  of  his  life.  At  twenty-two  life  looked  large,  at  eighty-eight 
it  looked  majestic.  For  the  boy  Jesus,  the  interview  with  the 
doctors  in  the  temple  must  have  been  thrilling;  but  for  Jesus, 
ascending  the  low  hill  with  the  cross  must  have  been  far  more 
thrilling.  The  rapture  of  the  recruit  is  great,  the  rapture  of  the 
veteran  intense. 

Where  got  Mr.  Wesley  this  abiding  and  expanding  motive 
power  which  enabled  him  to  see  that  ever  larger  things  were 
coming  to  pass  ?  I  answer :  "  God's  greatness  flowed  round  his 
incompleteness."  It  surrounded  him  as  an  atmosphere;  it  bore 
him  up  as  the  ocean  sustains  the  ship  or  the  solid  earth  an  army ; 
it  filled  him  with  perpetual  and  unwasting  vitality.  He  waited 
on  the  Lord  and  for  him  the  ancient  promise  was  both  literally 
and  abundantly  fulfilled. 

Mr.  Wesley's  evangelism  was  direct  and  immediate.  It  puts 
to  shame  much  of  that  in  vogue  this  day.  He  tackled  the  hard 
jobs.  He  faced  mobs  so  often  that  he  finally  adopted  a  principle 
for  their  control.  He  saw  the  spiritual  deadness  and  the  theo- 
logical unsoundness  about  him.  He  saw  a  godless  population. 
He  might  have  gathered  some  nice  people  about  him  and  told 
them  to  be  nicer;  he  might  have  told  them  how  to  get  others — 
wicked  men,  jailbirds  and  some  harlots  —  converted.  He  might 
have  made  the  Holy  Club  like  some  modern  meetings  for  the 
promotion  of  spirituality.  God  be  thanked,  he  did  nothing  of  the 
kind.  He  did  not  try  to  promote  revival  indirectly  and  spiritu- 
ality directly.  He  tried  to  bring  bad  men  and  the  good  God 
together  in  such  way  as  to  make  bad  men  good.  He  grappled 
directly  with  the  worst  cases.  None  were  too  desperate.  Never 
had  a  man  a  clearer  view  of  the  facts  about  man;  never  any  man 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  57 

a  clearer  view  of  the  goodness  and  sufficiency  of  Christ  and  his 
work.  He  hated  both  heresies,  "  that  which  as  liberalism  denied 
the  deity  of  Christ's  person,  and  that  which  as  hard  orthodoxy 
asserted  the  deity  of  his  person  and  denied  the  deity  of  his  work 
and  achievement."  It  was  a  thrilling  moment,  for  his  men  and 
for  us,  when  he  asked  his  Conference  that  searching  question : 
"  Do  we  not  lean  too  much  to  Calvinism  1 " 

This  celebration  ought  to  bring  us  face  to  face  with  our  his- 
toric position  and  recover  for  us  our  priceless  heritage.  Men's 
need  challenged  him.  Christ's  power  made  him  imperial.  In 
the  strength  of  Christ  he  grappled  directly  with  wicked  men  in  a 
wicked  society,  and  lo,  there  arose  such  a  tide  of  spiritual  power 
as  flooded  a  world,  sweeping  a  doctrinal  lie,  a  mechanical  phi- 
losophy, and  an  indifferent  spirit  off  the  earth.  We  shall  not 
see  anything  finer  than  this  saint,  prophet,  evangelist,  wrestling 
at  close  range  with  publicans,  sinners,  thieves,  murderers,  all  the 
long  day,  until  the  night ;  and  all  the  long  night,  until  the  morn- 
ing flung  shining  bars  of  golden  light  against  prison  windows, 
while  men  went  free.  Out  of  this  same  stock  came  Arthur 
Wellesley,  who  conquered  Napoleon  at  Waterloo. 

Step  by  step  two  men  walked  through  the  century  together; 
Voltaire  the  French  skeptic,  John  Wesley  the  English  believer. 
One  a  critic,  the  other  a  constructor;  one  wearing  a  perpetual 
sneer,  the  other  making  everlasting  affirmation.  "Under  one, 
Deism  became  Atheism ;  under  the  other,  it  went  to  death  in  the 
vision  of  Christ.  The  watchword  of  the  one  was  honor;  the 
watchword  of  the  other  was  holiness.  Voltaire  said :  '  We  have 
never  pretended  to  enlighten  shoemakers  and  servants.'  John 
Wesley  in  Christ's  name  made  kings  of  miners  and  cobblers  and 
plowboys."  In  the  year  1778,  in  a  most  theatric  fashion, 
crowned  with  laurel  and  praise,  Voltaire  died.  That  very  year 
John  Wesley  opened  City  Road  Chapel. 

This  evangelist  never  tried  to  establish  a  philosophical  or 
speculative  basis  of  union.  He  was  always  after  a  working 
basis.  "  I  beseech  you,  brethren,  by  the  mercies  of  God,  that  we 
be  in  no  wise  divided  among  ourselves.  Is  thy  heart  right,  as 
my  heart  is  right  with  thine  ?  Do  you  love  what  I  love  and 
desire  what  I  desire  ?  I  ask  no  farther  question.  If  it  be,  give 
me  thy  hand.  Let  us  do  something.  For  opinions,  or  terms, 
let  us  not  destroy  the  work  of  God.  Dost  thou  love  and  serve 
God?  It  is  enough.  I  give  thee  the  right  hand  of  fellowship." 

These,  it  seems  to  me,  are  the  meanings  of  Mr.  Wesley  and 


58  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

his  movement.  I  repeat  the  three  kingly  words  :  Saint,  prophet, 
evangelist,  and  reverently  declare  that  the  man  who  worthily 
bore  them  has  created  for  us  a  home  of  devotion,  of  freedom,  of 
progress,  of  activity,  of  holiness  and  of  service  in  which  it  is  well 
to  dwell. 

I  cannot  forget  in  this  closing  moment  that  one  August  day  in 
1856  those  gathered  in  this  Wesleyan  town,  as  you  are  to-day, 
heard  these  words:  "I  would  gladly  speak  to  you  of  the  charms 
of  pure  scholarship;  of  the  dignity  and  worth  of  the  scholar;  of 
the  abstract  relation  of  the  scholar  to  the  state.  The  sweet  air  we 
breathe  and  the  repose  of  midsummer  invite  a  calm  ethical  or 
intellectual  discourse.  But  would  you  have  counted  him  a  friend 
of  Greece,  who  quietly  discussed  the  abstract  nature  of  patriotism, 
on  that  Greek  summer  day  through  whose  hopeless  and  immortal 
hours  Leonidas  and  his  three  hundred  stood  at  Thermopylae  for 
liberty?  And  to-day,  as  the  scholar  meditates  that  deed,  the  air 
that  steals  in  at  his  window  darkens  his  study  and  suffocates  him 
as  he  reads.  Drifting  across  a  continent,  and  blighting  the  har- 
vests that  gild  it  with  plenty  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Mississippi, 
a  black  cloud  obscures  the  page  that  records  an  old  crime,  and 
compels  him  to  know  that  freedom  always  has  its  Thermopylae 
and  that  his  Thermopylas  is  called  Kansas."  "Brothers!  the  call 
has  come  to  us,"  he  concluded:  "I  bring  it  to  you  in  these  calm 
retreats.  I  summon  you  to  the  great  fight  of  Freedom.  Here 
are  our  Marathon  and  Lexington.  Here  are  our  heroic  fields. 
The  hearts  of  good  men  beat  with  us.  The  fight  is  fierce;  the 
issue  is  with  God,  but  God  is  good." 1 

There  in  England  were  the  conditions  under  which  educated 
men  easily  justify  themselves  for  leaving  the  Church  and  for- 
saking Christianity.  The  Church  was  spiritually  dead,  morally 
depraved  and  theologically  bad.  They  could  have  cursed  it  and 
left  it.  Or  they  could,  as  many  have  done,  have  rejected  the 
Christ  because  some  follower  had  gone  wrong.  It  is  the  peril  of 
educated  men.  But  it  is  the  proud  privilege  of  such  men  to  see 
in  the  ruin  the  rich  materials  for  a  new  creation.  It  is  theirs, 
above  all,  to  see  the  form  of  one  like  unto  the  Son  of  Man,  and  to 
feel  the  thrill  of  the  omnipotence  of  God  in  a  perfectly  obedient 
life. 

To  those  Oxford  scholars  the  moral  condition  of  England  made 
conquering  appeal.  They  were  young,  they  were  trained,  they 
were  ambitious.  They  were  England's  best.  And  England  met 

i  George  William  Curtis. 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  59 

them  in  that  Holy  Club  and  summoned  them  to  be  not  her  critics 
but  her  saviours.  Like  true  men  they  answered.  Some  one 
asked  where  Italy  was  six  centuries  ago,  and  the  reply  was: 
"Under  the  hood  of  Dante."  Better  England  was  once  under  the 
cap  of  Wesley.  The  world's  need  is  ever  looking  under  the  cap 
of  the  Christian  scholar.  This  quiet  day,  when  we  have  been 
looking  at  this  ancient  heroism,  God  has  been  flinging  into  the 
face  and  heart  of  graduate  and  undergraduate  our  unfinished 
tasks,  the  saloon,  the  city,  the  South,  the  Republic,  and  the  mis- 
sion fields  of  the  earth.  The  Oxford  gown  was  once  the  royal 
robe  of  a  new  Christian  knighthood.  Sin  fled  in  its  presence. 
The  collieries,  the  jails,  and  the  highways  were  made  glad  by  the 
sight  of  these  Oxford  men.  So  may  it  be  again. 

God  of  our  Fathers,  known  of  old, 
Lord  of  our  far-flung  battle  line, 
Lord  God  of  hosts,  be  with  us  yet! 


SUNDAY  EVENING 


OPENING  ADDRESS 
BY  BISHOP  CYEUS  DAVID  Foss 


THIS  is  a  unique  and  profoundly  interesting  occasion.  We 
meet  to  celebrate  the  bicentenary  of  the  birth  of  one 
of  the  most  notable  men  commemorated  in  the  history  of  the 
world — a  man  sure  to  be  admired  and  revered  by  multiplying 
millions  of  Christians  in  all  lands  and  to  be  remembered  as  long 
as  Paul  and  Luther  are  remembered — because  he  took  up  and 
carried  forward  their  work  as  no  other  man  has  ever  done. 

This  unprecedented  commemoration  continues  through  four 
successive  days  of  the  Commencement  Exercises  of  the  oldest  of 
the  more  than  two  hundred  universities,  colleges,  and  seminaries 
under  the  auspices  of  the  largest  branch  of  Protestantism  in  this 
country. 

The  movement  set  on  foot  by  John  Wesley  was  entitled  by 
its  chief  historian,  Abel  Stevens,  "The  Religious  Movement  of 
the  Eighteenth  Century  called  Methodism."  No  doubt  that  desig- 
nation impressed  many  readers  as  a  piece  of  arrant  boasting,  but 
thoughtful  students  of  history  have  since  come  to  think  it  an 
under-statement,  and  to  declare  Methodism  the  most  influential 
evangelical  movement  of  all  the  centuries,  in  respect  both  to  the 
thought  forces  which  it  set  in  motion  and  to  the  number  of  its 
adherents.  The  Methodist  family  is  the  most  numerous  body  of 
Protestant  Christians  on  earth,  and  Dean  Stanley  declared  that 
"Methodism  changed  the  religious  thinking  of  the  Protestant 
English-speaking  world." 

Of  the  immense  social  influence  of  the  Wesleyan  revival  one  of 
the  best  secular  papers  of  this  country  recently  gave,  in  its  leading 
editorial,  the  following  striking  characterization : 

Wesley's  work  in  England  is  not  to  be  described  merely  as  a  tremendously 
religious  one— in  point  of  fact,  it  attained  the  proportions  of  a  social  revolu- 
tion. England  of  the  early  eighteenth  century  was  a  land  benighted  and  be- 
sotted beyond  easy  realization  to-day ;  John  Wesley  and  his  band  of  traveling 
preachers  were  like  visitors  from  another  world,  and  as  everywhere  they 

63 


64  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

spoke  to  hungry  souls  from  the  coal  pits  and  the  paganized  fields,  England 
awoke  to  another  existence.  It  is  an  assertion  acquiesced  in  by  thoughtful 
students  of  history  that,  but  for  John  Wesley,  England's  awakening  would 
have  been  in  such  a  revolution  as  drenched  France  in  its  own  best  blood. 

As  to  the  man  who  projected  into  the  world  such  an  amazing 
force  I  present  some  terse  non-Methodistic  testimony.  Lord  Ma- 
caulay  said  Wesley's  "  genius  for  government  was  not  inferior  to 
that  of  Richelieu."  The  recent  brilliant  English  essayist,  Augustine 
Birrell,  declares  Wesley's  life  "  the  most  amazing  record  of  human 
exertion  ever  penned  or  endured,"  and  adds,  "  no  man  lived  nearer 
the  centre  than  John  Wesley;  not  Clive,  nor  Pitt,  nor  Mansfield, 
nor  Johnson.  You  cannot  cut  him  out  of  our  national  life.  No 
single  figure  influenced  so  many  minds,  no  single  voice  touched 
so  many  hearts,  no  other  man  did  such  a  life's  work  for 
England." 

One  word  from  this  side  of  the  ocean.  A  Boston  Congrega- 
tional pastor,  Dr.  S.  E.  Herrick,  thus  writes :  "  He  is,  I  think,  the 
finest  illustration  of  consecrated,  unselfish,  whole-hearted  devotion 
for  fifty  years  of  this  old  world's  dark  history  that  the  Church  of 
Christ  has  ever  offered  to  the  vision  of  men." 

Vast,  however,  as  was  the  effect  of  Wesley's  work  on  the  moral 
and  national  life  of  England,  his  chief  influence  on  the  world  was 
distinctly  religious. 

It  is  a  very  striking  fact  that  when  God  gets  ready  to  give 
some  great  and  important  truth  new  and  larger  currency  in  the 
world,  he  is  quite  accustomed  to  accomplish  this  end  by  hiding 
that  truth  in  the  capacious  soul  of  some  divinely  endowed  and 
chosen  man,  and  setting  it  on  fire  there  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  Some 
truths  clearly  stated  on  the  pages  of  the  Bible  have  got  very 
little  hold  upon  the  thought  and  heart  of  the  world,  until  they 
have  had  this  special  Divine  treatment.  We  have  long  believed, 
and  of  late  the  Christian  world  has  come  to  believe,  that  God 
raised  up  John  Wesley  for  such  a  special  purpose,  and  that  the 
truth  which  he  wished  through  him  to  make  more  effective  was 
the  great  and  vital  truth  of  personal  religious  experience  wit- 
nessed to  the  individual  by  the  Holy  Ghost  sent  down  from 
heaven. 

For  fifteen  years,  from  the  age  of  twenty  to  thirty-five,  Wesley 
was  as  strenuous  a  servant  of  God  as  ever  afterwards.  Then  he 
became  consciously  a  son  of  God,  and  was  able,  with  the  holy 
egotism  of  Paul,  to  say  "  My  Gospel,"  and  to  believe  that  "  Christ 
loved  me  and  gave  himself  for  me."  That  day  Methodism  was 


GEORGE  JACKSON 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  65 

born.  It  was  Wesley's  chief  function  to  translate  the  Gospel  into 
the  vernacular  of  each  individual  sinner,  and  to  put  it  into  the 
present  tense,  first  person,  and  singular  number. 

Such  is  the  peerless  man  and  such  the  mightily  influential  move- 
ment we  are  met  to  commemorate. 

We  are  highly  favored  at  this  hour  in  that  we  are  to  be  in- 
spired by  an  appreciation  of  some  of  the  chief  aspects  of  the 
Wesleyan  movement  by  a  genuine  son  of  Wesley  representing 
the  Mother  Church  beyond  the  sea;  a  brother  greatly  beloved 
throughout  the  British  Isles,  whose  notably  successful  labors 
have  been  devoted  chiefly  to  city  evangelization  in  Edinburgh. 
He  doubtless  recalls  Mr.  Wesley's  frank  confession  about  Scot- 
land, given  in  his  "Journal"  :  "  I  know  not  why  any  should  com- 
plain of  the  shyness  of  Scots  toward  strangers.  All  I  spoke  with 
were  as  free  and  open  with  me  as  the  people  of  Bristol ;  nor  did 
any  person  move  any  dispute.  ...  I  preached  on  '  Seek  ye  the 
Lord.'  ...  I  used  great  plainness  of  speech;  and  they  all  re- 
ceived it  in  love ;  so  that  the  prejudice  which  the  devil  had  been 
several  years  planting  was  torn  up  by  the  roots  in  one  hour." 

We  have  no  such  prejudice,  my  dear  brother;  but  hail  with 
gladness  all  genuine  Britons,  especially  British  Christians,  pre- 
eminently British  Methodists.  Welcome,  thrice  welcome,  worthy 
son  of  the  fellow  of  Lincoln  College,  Oxford,  who  founded  Meth- 
odism, to  this  American  Wesleyan  Oxford. 

I  have  peculiar  pleasure  in  presenting  to  this  audience  the 
Reverend  George  Jackson,  A.B.,  who  will  address  you  on  "  The 
Old  Methodism  and  the  New." 


ADDRESS 

BY  THE  REVEREND  GEORGE  JACKSON 

* 
€(je  <©to  a$et|)0tii£m  anfc  tjje  $cto 

MY  purpose  in  this  address  is  to  institute  a  comparison  be- 
tween the  Methodism  of  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century 
as  it  was  left  by  John  Wesley  and  Methodism  as  it  exists  to-day 
at  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century.    It  will  be  under- 
stood, of  course,  that  I  speak  only  of  English  Methodism,  and,  in 
5 


66  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

the  main,  of  English  Wesleyan  Methodism.  Inasmuch,  however, 
as  the  Methodists  of  England,  despite  the  unhappy  household 
jars  which  have  led  to  the  establishment  of  some  half-dozen 
Methodist  Churches  or  Societies,  with  their  varying  forms  of  or- 
ganized church  life,  still  remain,  in  all  essential  things,  one  peo- 
ple, revealing  in  their  common  likeness  their  common  origin,  I 
trust  I  may  be  permitted,  without  impertinence,  to  drop  the  dis- 
tinguishing adjective  and  speak  of  the  Methodism  of  England  as 
of  a  single,  homogeneous  whole.  Where  my  conclusions  are  at 
fault  the  error  will  be  due  rather  to  a  misreading  of  the  general 
facts  of  Methodist  history  than  to  the  unsoundness  of  this  par- 
ticular premiss. 

The  field  before  us,  then,  is  a  very  wide  one,  and  any  such 
survey  of  it  as  it  is  possible  to  attempt  within  the  limits  of  a 
single  address  will  necessarily  be  very  incomplete.  Subjects 
which  might  reasonably  be  expected  to  find  a  place  must  be 
altogether  ignored  or  but  touched  on  in  passing ;  and  even  where 
some  little  discussion  is  possible  the  qualifications  and  excep- 
tions necessary  to  a  full  statement  of  the  case  must  needs  be 
omitted.  Further,  though  my  aim  is  to  register  facts  rather  than 
to  pronounce  opinions,  it  will  be  impossible  wholly  to  eliminate 
the  personal  equation.  It  will  reveal  itself  alike  in  the  selection 
of  the  facts,  in  the  grouping  of  them,  and  in  the  conclusions 
which  they  are  used  to  support.  I  must  do  my  best  under  the 
inevitable  limitations  which  the  circumstances  impose,  and  you 
will  receive  my  words,  not  in  any  sense  as  an  authoritative  judg- 
ment on  the  matters  with  which  they  deal,  but  simply  as  an 
honest  attempt  on  the  part  of  one  member  of  the  Mother  Church 
of  Methodism  to  set  forth  its  past  and  its  present  in  some  of 
their  mutual  relations.  I  propose,  therefore,  to  ask  what  changes 
the  years  since  Wesley's  death  have  wrought :  first,  in  our  eccle- 
siastical, and,  second,  in  our  doctrinal  position,  and,  finally,  how 
far  the  spirit  which  was  characteristic  of  early  Methodism  still 
remains  among  us  who  are  the  heirs  and  trustees  of  its  great 
traditions. 

VL IK  ecclesiastical  Position  of  illctliobism 

IN  speaking  of  the  ecclesiastical  position  of  Methodism  I  must 
pass  over  in  silence  the  long  series  of  modifications  and  re- 
adjustments by  which,  through  successive  generations,  the  or- 
ganization of  our  Church  has  been  adapted  to  the  great  ends  for 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  67 

which  it  exists.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  the  law  of  its  development 
has  been  the  same  throughout.  What  was  true  of  Methodism  in 
its  embryonic  stage  is  not  less  true  of  it  now :  the  thing  to  be 
done  determined  the  way  of  doing  it.  We  are  not  to-day,  and 
never  have  been,  the  victims  of  any  theory  of  Church  govern- 
ment. That  is  for  us  ideally  the  best  which  proves  itself  to 
be  actually  the  best.  We  hold  ourselves  free,  absolutely  regard- 
less of  a  petty  self-consistency,  to  avail  ourselves  of  any  and 
every  method  which  will  enable  us  more  effectively  to  fulfil  our 
great  mission.  And  hence  it  comes  to  pass  that  the  church 
polity  of  Methodism,  so  far  from  being  a  clever  contrivance  of 
ecclesiastical  foresight,  is  rather  a  long  chapter  of  happy  acci- 
dents— or,  as  I  should  prefer  to  say,  of  Divine  providences — the 
result  of  "a  judicious  and  a  deft  adjustment  of  organism  to  the 
moulding  pressure  of  a  changing  environment." l  On  this  point, 
however,  I  may  not  dwell ;  what  I  wish  specially  to  refer  to 
under  this  division  of  my  subject  is  the  present  as  compared 
with  the  past  position  of  Methodism  in  relation  to  the  other 
Christian  churches  of  England. 

At  the  time  of  Wesley's  death  the  Methodists  occupied  a  place 
apart  both  from  the  Anglican  Church  on  the  one  hand  and  the 
older  Noncomformist  Churches  on  the  other.  But  while  toward 
Anglicanism  they  had  many  leanings,  toward  Dissent  they  had 
none.  It  has  been  stated  by  Canon  Overton 2  (though  I  have  not 
been  able  to  verify  the  statement)  that  when  the  British  and 
Foreign  Bible  Society  was  founded  in  1804,  and  each  denomina- 
tion was  invited  to  appoint  a  representative,  the  Wesleyans 
declined  the  invitation  on  the  ground  that  they  were  already 
represented  by  the  Bishops  of  the  Mother  Church;  and,  as  late  as 
1821,  we  find  Richard  Watson  writing,  "Though  Methodism 
stands  now  in  a  different  relation  to  the  Establishment  than  in 
the  days  of  Mr.  Wesley,  Dissent  has  never  been  professed  by 
the  body.  To  leave  that  Communion  (the  Church  of  England) 
is  not  in  any  sense  a  condition  of  membership  with  us."  This 
feeling  toward  the  Anglican  Church  needs  neither  explanation 
nor  apology ;  it  is  a  part  of  the  family  history  of  Methodism  and 
is  involved  in  the  circumstances  of  its  origin.  Equally  explicable 
is  the  ancient  antagonism  toward  Dissent.  Wesley's  own 
prejudices  were  very  strong,  and  he  did  not  fail  to  express  them 
with  corresponding  strength.  Here  are  two  extracts  from  his 

1  The  phrase  is  Dr.  Benjamin  Gregory's. 

2  In  a  paper  read  before  the  Church  Congress  in  October,  1899. 


68  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

"  Journal/'  dated  respectively  1777  and  1780:  "  Peeltown,  Isle  of 
Man.  A  more  loving,  simple-hearted  people  than  this  I  never 
saw ;  and  no  wonder,  for  they  have  but  six  Papists  and  no  Dis- 
senters in  the  island."  "Trowbridge.  As  most  of  the  hearers 
were  Dissenters  I  did  not  expect  to  do  much  good."  Charles 
Wesley  was  even  more  offensive.  A  correspondent  of  Doddridge, 
writing  to  him  in  1749,  complains  of  him  for  calling  dissenting 
ministers  "  a  tribe  of  priests,  unholy  and  unsent."  J  After  this  it 
does  not  much  surprise  us  to  find  Chatham  Methodists  petitioning 
Parliament  against  a  bill  for  the  relief  of  Dissenters  from  sub- 
mission to  the  Articles.2  Equally  unsympathetic  was  the  atti- 
tude of  the  Dissenters  to  the  Methodists.  For  a  time  even 
Doddridge  himself  stood  aloof  from  the  movement,  and  when  at 
last  he  laid  aside  his  scruples  so  far  as  to  allow  Whitefield  to 
preach  in  his  pulpit,  the  good  Dr.  Watts  was  moved  to  remon- 
strate with  him  on  the  ground  that  he  was  compromising  his 
respectability !  Nor  was  this  the  only  difficulty.  As  Dr.  Dale 
has  pointed  out,  the  Arminianism  of  Wesley  filled  the  Dissenters 
of  that  day  with  alarm.  Nor  was  their  alarm  without  reason. 
The  decline  of  Calvinism,  which  had  been  going  on  during  the 
previous  thirty  years,  had  been  followed  by  the  surrender  of  the 
great  and  characteristic  doctrines  of  the  Christian  faith.  Nearly 
all  the  fire  and  depth  of  religious  life  that  remained  among  the 
Dissenters  were  found  among  those  who  held  fast  to  Calvinism. 
It  was,  therefore,  natural  that  when  Wesley  began  his  vehement 
attacks  upon  predestination  the  really  devoted  and  earnest  men 
among  the  Nonconformists  regarded  him  with  distrust  and  hos- 
tility.3 They  had  not  then  discovered  that,  as  Dr.  Dorner  has 
pointed  out,4  the  Arminianism  of  Wesley  was  really,  as  far  as 
saving  doctrines  were  concerned,  nearer  to  the  old  Reformed 
system  to  which  they  clung  than  to  the  Arminianism  which  not 
without  reason  they  both  feared  and  hated. 

Such,  then,  was  the  position  of  Methodism  among  the  various 
religious  communities  of  England  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  But  during  the  last  hundred  years  a  change,  at  first  so 

i "  Philip  Doddridge,"  by  C.  Stanford,  p.  quency  with  which  the  name  of  Dr.  Dale 

93.  appears  in  these  pages.     But  for  what  I 

2  "Burke,"  by  John  Morley  ("English  have  learned  from  Mm  they  could  never 
Men  of  Letters  Series  "),  p.  71.  have  been  written.  His  books  contain  the 

3  See  Dr.  Dale's  sermon,  "The  Theology  of  truest  and  most  sympathetic  criticism  of 
John  Wesley"  ("  Fellowship  with  Christ,"  the  Evangelical  Movement  that  we  pos- 
pp.  216-246),  and  especially  his  sermon  on  sess. 

Calvinism  in  the  "  British  Weekly,"  August  *  "  History  of  Protestant  Theology,"  vol. 
15,  1895.  I  make  no  apology  for  the  fre-  ii.,  p.  92. 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  69 

slow  as  to  be  almost  imperceptible,  but  within  recent  years  so  rapid 
as  to  be  marked  by  all,  has  taken  place,  which  has  almost  revolu- 
tionized the  ecclesiastical  relations  of  Methodism.  On  the  one 
hand,  the  gulf  between  the  Anglican  Church  and  Methodism  has 
gradually  widened  and  deepened,  until  now  no  English  Methodist 
looks  for  reunion  with  the  Church  of  which  Wesley  was  a  minister. 
And  this,  be  it  remembered,  is  not  a  result  which  Methodists  have 
sought;  it  is  one  to  which  by  Anglican  intolerance  they  have  been 
driven.  When  even  so  liberal  a  churchman  as  Bishop  Gore  de- 
clares that  there  are  but  three  divisions  of  the  Church  of  Christ — 
the  Anglican,  the  Roman,  and  the  Greek — and  that  for  all 
others  there  can  only  be  toleration  more  or  less  complete,  but  no 
communion;  when  the  ministers  of  Methodism  are  branded  as 
unauthorized  intruders,  and  its  children  made  the  subject  of  in- 
credibly mean  and  petty  persecutions;  when,  in  the  very  county 
in  which  Wesley  won  his  greatest  triumphs,  and  which  remains 
until  this  day  one  of  the  chief  Methodist  strongholds,  an  Anglican 
Bishopric  is  set  up,  not  so  much  for  the  salvation  of  the  lost  and 
degraded,  as  for  the  establishment  of  Anglican  supremacy,  what 
answer  can  self-respecting  men  give  to  those  who  speak  to  them 
of  "reunion"?  They  have  seen  these  things  more  in  sorrow  than 
in  anger,  but  they  have  seen  them,  and  their  resolve  has  been 
taken:  Dissenters  they  may  be;  Anglicans,  while  things  remain 
as  they  are,  they  can  never  be.  And  Dissenters  to  all  intents  and 
purposes  the  Methodists  of  England  have  now  become,  or  are  fast 
becoming.  For  as,  on  the  one  hand,  the  ties  which  once  bound 
them  to  the  Established  Church  have  been  strained  to  the  break- 
ing point,  on  the  other  hand,  those  which  link  them  with  the 
great  Congregational  and  Baptist  Churches  have  become  stronger 
and  stronger.  Through  the  operation  of  causes  too  numerous 
and  complex  to  narrate  here,  and  of  recent  years  through  the 
remarkable  influence  of  the  National  Council  of  Evangelical  Free 
Churches,  the  old  mutual  distrust  has  gone,  the  old  dividing  walls 
are  fast  going.  A  great  leader  in  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church 
of  a  generation  ago  used  to  speak,  I  am  told,  of  "Anglicans,  Dis- 
senters, and  Wesleyan  Methodists";  and  there  are  probably  a  few 
still  who  would  maintain  and  glory  in  the  threefold  classification; 
but  to  the  overwhelming  majority  of  younger  Methodists  it  is  an 
anachronism :  we  are  Methodists  and  we  are  Dissenters.  Just  as 
the  men  who  came  out  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  at  the  great 
Disruption  of  1843  had  no  thought  of  uniting  themselves  with  the 
earlier  Seceders,  whose  views  they  did  not  share,  and  yet,  as  the 
5* 


70  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

years  went  by,  felt  themselves  constrained  by  the  logic  of  circum- 
stances and  of  their  own  position  to  cultivate  a  fellowship  which  has 
now  been  happily  consummated  in  union,  so  are  the  Methodists 
of  England  abandoning  the  "splendid  isolation"  in  which  once 
they  gloried,  and  are  finding  in  the  children  of  the  Puritans  their 
true  friends  and  yoke-fellows. 

Before  passing  from  this  part  of  my  subject  one  word  must  be 
added  on  the  relation  of  the  various  sections  of  English  Methodists 
to  each  other.  When  Wesley  died  Methodism  in  England  was 
one;  to-day  it  is  sixfold.  From  the  point  of  view  of  a  Wesleyan 
Methodist  the  story  of  our  divisions  is  the  most  painful  in  our 
history,  and  I  only  touch  upon  it  in  order  to  express  the  hope  and 
the  belief  that  it  is  speedily  to  be  closed.  The  divisive  tendency 
seems  at  last  to  have  spent  itself,  and  with  the  gradual  liberalizing 
of  Wesleyan  Methodism,  and  the  dying  down  of  the  fires  of 
enmity  in  the  minds  of  those  who  in  anger — and  not  always  in 
unrighteous  anger — went  out  from  us,  the  causes  for  continued 
separation  would  seem  to  be  rapidly  disappearing.  Thus  far, 
however,  very  little  has  been  done  to  give  practical  effect  to  the 
growing  desire  for  union.  An  attempt  made  quite  recently  to 
bring  together  the  Primitive  Methodists  and  the  Bible  Christians 
came  to  nought.  At  the  present  moment,  it  is  understood,  nego- 
tiations are  in  progress  between  the  Methodist  New  Connection, 
the  United  Methodist  Free  Church,  and  the  Bible  Christians. 
This  is  so  far  well.  Indeed,  almost  any  proposal  is  to  be  wel- 
comed which  will  keep  the  question  of  union  to  the  front,  and 
disturb  the  peace  of  those  who  suppose  that  as  things  are  so  they 
always  must  be.  At  the  same  time  it  is  the  strong  conviction  of 
at  least  one  man  that,  if  we  are  to  have  a  united  Methodism,  the 
movement  for  union  must  begin  from  the  centre.  If  the  minor 
bodies  are  left  to  unite  among  themselves  there  is  always  the 
peril — conspicuously  illustrated  in  the  negotiations  between  the 
Primitive  Methodists  and  the  Bible  Christians — that  some  con- 
cessions may  be  made  on  one  side  or  the  other  which  would 
eventually  bar  the  way  to  the  larger  union.  The  key  of  the 
situation  is  held  by  the  Wesleyan  Methodists,  and  it  is  to  them 
their  fellow  Methodists  rightly  look  to  make  the  first  advance. 
The  Wesleyan  Methodists,  on  their  part,  may  reasonably  require 
that  the  concessions  to  be  made  shall  not  be  in  inverse  ratio  to  the 
benefits  to  be  derived,  and  that  those  who  under  any  scheme  of 
union  stand  to  gain  most  shall  be  ready  to  concede  most.  Mean- 
while, however,  the  Wesleyans  give  no  sign.  Many  of  them,  it  is 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  71 

to  be  feared,  doubt  not  merely  the  possibility  but  the  desirability 
of  union.  That  they  are  not  yet  prepared  for  it  is  no  reproach 
to  them ;  it  is  a  reproach,  if  one  of  themselves  may  say  so,  that 
they  are  not  more  earnestly  preparing.  At  the  same  time  there 
is  no  reason  for  despondency.  The  flowing  tide  is  with  the  friends 
of  union.  They  know  what  has  happened  in  Canada,  and  Aus- 
tralia, and  among  the  Free  Presbyterian  Churches  in  Scotland, 
and  they  are  confident  the  turn  of  English  Methodism  cannot  long 
be  delayed.  The  scandal  of  our  divisions  is  fast  becoming  in- 
tolerable. That,  so  long  as  human  nature  remains  what  it  is, 
different  types  of  Church  life  corresponding  to  those  which  we 
now  know  under  the  names  of  Episcopal,  Congregational,  and 
Methodist,  will  continue  to  exist,  may  be  granted;  but  six  sorts 
of  Methodists,  with  their  six  separate  organizations,  constitute  a 
condition  of  things  which  earnest  men  find  more  and  more  difficult 
to  justify  in  the  presence  of  their  Lord.  Not  much  longer,  even 
by  silence,  will  they  consent  to  endure  it. 

She  ?D0ctritt£0  of  JtUthobism 

I  TURN  now  to  the  second  and  more  difficult  part  of  my  task — 
the  doctrines  of  Methodism.  Speaking  generally,  the  doctrines 
of  the  Evangelical  Revival  were  those  of  the  Reformed  Church 
of  England.  The  leaders  of  the  movement  emphatically  denied 
that  they  had  any  new  gospel  to  preach.  They  were  not  theo- 
logians but  evangelists.  Their  aim  was  not  the  reconstruction  of 
a  system  of  religious  thought,  but  the  reawakening  of  England's 
slumbering  religious  life.  And  for  their  purpose  the  theology  of 
the  Church  of  which  they  were  ministers  left  nothing  to  be  de- 
sired. With  all  their  hearts  they  both  received  and  proclaimed 
it.  They  did  not  even  seek  to  recast  it  in  the  light  of  the  new 
and  wider  spiritual  experiences  which  came  to  them;  they  simply 
took,  as  a  recent  writer  has  said,  "  the  higher  theological  concep- 
tions current  in  their  time  as  they  found  them,  though  filling 
them  with  a  new  evangelical  meaning  and  warmth." 1  Wesley's 
own  declarations  on  the  matter  are  as  explicit  as  usual.  Thus, 
e.g.,  he  writes  in  his  "Journal,"  under  September  13,  1739:  "A 
serious  Clergyman  desired  to  know,  in  what  points  we  differed 
from  the  Church  of  England.  I  answered,  '  To  the  best  of  my 
knowledge,  in  none.  The  doctrines  we  preach  are  the  doctrines 
of  the  Church  of  England ;  indeed,  the  fundamental  doctrines  of 

i  "The  Fatherhood  of  God,"  by  J.  Scott  Lidgett,  M.A.,  p.  145. 


72  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

the  Church,  clearly  laid  down,  both  in  her  Prayers,  Articles,  and 
Homilies.'"  Again,  on  October  15  of  the  same  year,  we  have 
this  entry :  "  From  Acts  xxviii.,  22,  I  simply  described  the  plain, 
old  religion  of  the  Church  of  England,  which  is  now  almost 
everywhere  spoken  against,  under  the  new  name  of  Methodism." 
But  if  the  Methodist  doctrine  was  really  so  "old,"  how  did  it 
come  to  pass  that  by  so  many  it  was  looked  upon  as  new  and 
strange?  What  gave  to  the  movement  the  distinguishing  doc- 
trinal characteristics  which  undoubtedly  belonged  to  it?  The 
explanation  is  to  be  found,  first,  in  the  long  silence  which  had 
fallen  on  the  Anglican  pulpit  concerning  the  doctrines  of  vital 
personal  religion ; l  and,  secondly,  in  the  new  and  startling  em- 
phasis with  which  certain  of  these  doctrines  were  now  proclaimed 
to  the  world  by  the  preachers  of  Methodism. 

When  from  the  past  we  turn  to  the  present,  and  ask  how  far 
modern  Methodism  remains  true  to  the  faith  of  Wesley,  it  is  at 
once  easy  and  difficult  to  answer.  We  may  reply  that  certain  of 
Wesley's  sermons,  together  with  his  Notes  on  the  New  Testament, 
still  remain  the  theological  standards  of  the  Church;  that  every 
candidate  for  its  ministry  is  required,  before  ordination,  publicly 
to  declare  his  belief  that  the  "system  of  doctrine  therein  con- 
tained is  in  accordance  with  the  Holy  Scriptures  " ;  and,  further, 
that  not  at  ordination  only,  but  again  through  each  succeeding 
year  of  his  ministry  every  Methodist  preacher  is  called  on,  in  the 
presence  of  his  brethren,  to  say  whether  or  not  he  does  still 
"  believe  and  preach  our  doctrines."  This  is  the  easy  answer,  and 
besides  being  easy,  it  is  true ;  but  it  is  not  the  whole  truth ;  and 
it  is  in  the  attempt  to  state  the  necessary  qualifications  and  addi- 
tions that  our  difficulties  begin.  All,  I  think,  will  agree  that, 
whatever  modifications  of  our  theology  have  taken  place,  the  pith 
and  substance  of  the  Methodist  gospel  remain  unchanged.  There 
have  been  developments— fewer  indeed  than  there  might  profitably 
have  been  2 — but  at  no  point  has  there  been  any  violent  break 

i  The  secret  of  the  success  of  Methodism,  sustaining  action  of  the  Divine  Spirit  upon 
says  Lecky,  "  was  merely  that  it  satisfied  the  believer's  soul,  are  doctrines  which,  in 
some  of  the  strongest  and  most  enduring  the  eyes  of  the  modern  evangelical,  con- 
wants  of  our  nature  which  found  no  grati-  stitute  at  once  the  most  vital  and  the 
flcation  in  the  popular  theology,  that  it  most  influential  portions  of  Christianity, 
revived  a  large  class  of  religious  doctrines  but  they  are  doctrines  which,  during  the 
which  had  been  long  almost  wholly  neg-  greater  part  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
lected.  The  utter  depravity  of  human  na-  were  seldom  heard  from  a  Church  of 
ture,  the  lost  condition  of  every  man  who  England  pulpit."  ("  History  of  England  in 
is  born  into  the  world,  the  vicarious  atone-  the  Eighteenth  Century,"  vol.  iii.,  p.  31.) 
ment  ,of  Christ,  the  necessity  to  salvation  2  «  There  was  one  doctrine  of  John  Wes- 
of  a  new  birth,  of  faith,  of  the  constant  and  ley's— the  doctrine  of  perfect  sane  tinea- 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  73 

with  the  past.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that,  with  all  its  unhappy 
tendencies  to  division,  Methodism  has  never  known  one  serious 
secession  on  doctrinal  grounds.  At  the  same  time,  though  for 
various  reasons  our  Church  has  been  less  powerfully  affected 
than  many  of  our  sister  Churches  by  the  great  intellectual  move- 
ments of  the  last  century,  it  would  be  folly  to  pretend  that  it  has 
been  wholly  untouched  by  them.  We  do  "believe  and  preach 
our  doctrines,"  but  with  a  difference — a  difference  of  place,  a 
difference  of  proportion,  a  difference  of  emphasis.  The  things 
we  take  for  granted  are  not  just  what  they  were.  The  motives 
to  which  we  appeal,  and  by  which  we  ourselves  are  prompted, 
belong  to  another  order.  General  statements  like  these,  how- 
ever, are  liable  to  mislead,  and  it  may  be  safer,  therefore,  to  ex- 
plain my  meaning  by  brief  references  to  one  or  two  particular 
doctrines. 

(1)  In  a  short  paper  on  "  the  people  called  Methodists,"  written 
in  1786,  Wesley  asks,  "What  was  their  fundamental  doctrine?" 
and  his  answer  is,  "That  the  Bible  is  the  whole  and  sole  rule 
both  of  Christian  faith  and  practice."  This  is  a  statement  to 
which  every  Methodist  with  whom  I  have  any  acquaintance 
would  subscribe  as  heartily  and  unreservedly  as  Wesley  himself. 
At  the  same  time,  it  leaves  us,  as  do  all  our  theological  standards, 
with  no  rigidly  defined  and  fettering  theory  of  Inspiration.  We 
to-day  are  as  sure  that  the  Bible  is  the  Word  of  God  as  were  the 
first  Methodists ;  but  we  state  our  reasons  very  differently.  Some 
of  us  might  say  with  Robertson  Smith,  "  If  I  am  asked  why  I  re-" 
ceive  Scripture  as  the  Word  of  God,  and  as  the  only  perfect  rule 
of  faith  and  life,  I  answer  with  all  the  fathers  of  the  Protestant 
Church,  '  because  the  Bible  is  the  only  record  of  the  redeeming 
love  of  God ;  because  in  the  Bible  alone  I  find  God  drawing  near 
to  man  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  declaring  to  us,  in  him,  his  will  for 
our  salvation.' " l  And  it  is  this  uniqueness  which  constitutes  for 
us  what  we  call  the  Inspiration  of  the  Bible,  and  by  virtue  of 
which  it  exercises  authority  over  us.  Now,  admittedly,  this  is 
not  exactly  how  the  early  Methodists  would  have  explained  what 

tion— which  ought  to  have  led  to  a  great  them  effectively,  indeed,  would  have  been 
and  original  ethical  development;  but  the  to  originate  an  ethical  revolution  which 
doctrine  has  not  grown;  it  seems  to  re-  would  have  had  a  far  deeper  effect  on  the 
main  just  where  John  Wesley  left  it.  There  thought  and  life— flrstof  England  and  then 
has  been  a  want  of  the  genius  or  the  cour-  of  the  rest  of  Christendom— than  was  pro- 
age  to  attempt  the  solution  of  the  immense  duced  by  the  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth 
practical  questions  which  the  doctrine  century."  ("  The  Evangelical  Revival  and 
suggests.  The  questions  have  not  been  other  Sermons,"  by  R.  W.  Dale,  p.  39.) 
raised,  much  less  solved.  To  have  raised  i  "Answer  to  the  form  of  Libel,"  p.  41. 


74  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

they  meant  by  inspiration.  But  that  does  not  matter.  They 
were  not  under  the  necessity  which  is  laid  upon  us  to  find  room 
for  the  assured  results  of  Biblical  scholarship.  We  must  have  a 
doctrine  of  Scripture  which  is  not  at  the  mercy  of  the  latest 
"find"  in  the  East,  or  the  most  recent  theory  of  the  composition 
of  the  Pentateuch.  And  in  the  direction  suggested  by  Robertson 
Smith's  words  such  a  doctrine  is,  I  believe,  to  be  found.  Abiding 
firmly  by  such  a  faith  we  can  await  without  concern  the  results 
of  the  present  critical  investigation  of  our  sacred  books.  The 
Bible  is  what  it  is,  however  it  came  to  be  what  it  is.  Whether 
the  early  chapters  of  Genesis  are,  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  word, 
historical,  whether  David  actually  wrote  any  of  the  Psalms, 
whether  the  book  of  Jonah  is  history  or  allegory — these  and 
other  similar  questions  must  be  determined,  if  they  can  be  deter- 
mined at  all,  by  the  ordinary  methods  of  literary  criticism. 
Whichever  way  the  final  decision  goes,  the  authority  of  Scrip- 
ture will  remain  wholly  unimpaired.  It  is  in  this  spirit,  I  believe, 
that  Methodism  in  England  is  preparing  itself  to  meet  the  diffi- 
culties of  the  new  situation  thrust  upon  it  by  modern  Biblical 
scholarship ;  a  spirit  of  cautious  liberalism,  neither  recklessly 
abandoning  the  old  because  it  is  old,  nor  yet  fearfully  rejecting 
the  new  because  it  is  new;  keeping  always  an  open  mind,  still,  as 
at  the  beginning,  agreeing  to  think  and  let  think,  and  through 
all  strong  and  unshaken  in  its  ancient  confidence  that  the  Bible 
is  the  Word  of  God  which  liveth  and  abideth  forever. 

(2)  From  the  doctrine  of  Scripture  I  turn  to  the  more  dis- 
tinctively Methodist  doctrine  of  Conversion.  "The  theological 
characteristic  of  Methodism,"  says  Dr.  Dale,  "  is,  perhaps,  the  em- 
phasis with  which  it  has  insisted  on  the  necessity  and  the  instan- 
taneousness  of  the  new  birth."1  This  is  undoubtedly  true  of  the 
Methodism  of  Wesley's  day ;  it  is  true  still,  but  again  with  a 
difference.  We  also  believe  in  the  need  of  conversion  and  the 
possibility  of  instantaneous  conversion,  but  we  do  not  now  lay 
the  same  emphasis  as  did  many  of  our  fathers  upon  the  definite 
moment  of  our  transition  from  death  to  life.  The  great  and 
remarkable  experience  of  salvation  in  which  the  life-work  of 
Wesley  had  its  root,  reinforced  by  the  influence  of  his  powerful 
personality,  impressed  itself  on  the  lives  of  his  immediate  fellow- 
workers.  They  in  their  turn  saw  that  impression  reproduced  in 
the  experiences  of  thousands  to  whom  they  preached,  till  multi- 

i  "  Essays  and  Addresses,"  p.  261. 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  75 

tudes  throughout  the  whole  land  could  sing  as  their  deepest, 
gladdest  certainty — 

O  happy  day  that  fixed  my  choice 
On  Thee,  my  Saviour  and  my  God  ! 

And  when  these  signs  fail  us  Methodism  will  have  ceased  to  be 
itself.  Nevertheless  it  is  not  for  us — and  this  is  the  point  at 
which  the  doctrine  in  its  earlier  form  was  often  open  to  criti- 
cism— to  insist  on  any  particular  type  of  conversion  as  the  sole 
passport  into  the  Kingdom  of  God,  or  to  assume  that  the  highest 
kind  of  religious  experience  must  always  be  able  to  date  its 
beginning  by  the  clock.  I  say  these  things  with  the  greater 
emphasis  just  now  because  of  certain  statements  recently  made 
on  this  subject  in  my  own  city1  by  one  of  America's  most  dis- 
tinguished scholars,  Professor  William  James  of  Harvard  Uni- 
versity. "  For  Methodists,"  he  says,  "  unless  there  have  been  a 
crisis  of  this  sort  (i.e.,  'an  acute  crisis  of  self -despair  and  sur- 
render followed  by  relief)  salvation  is  only  offered,  not  effec- 
tively received,  and  Christ's  sacrifice  in  so  far  forth  is  incomplete. 
.  .  .  Revivalism  has  always  assumed  that  only  its  own  type  of 
religious  experience  can  be  perfect;  you  must  first  be  nailed 
on  the  cross  of  natural  despair  and  agony,  and  then  in  the 
twinkling  of  an  eye  be  miraculously  released." 2  If  this  were 
meant  as  a  criticism  of  Evangelicalism  in  the  eighteenth  century 
it  might,  perhaps,  be  allowed  to  pass ;  as  a  judgment  on  Metho- 
dist teaching  to-day  it  is  altogether  wide  of  the  mark.  We 
believe  not  in  the  necessity  but  the  possibility  of  sudden  conver- 
sion, not  that  men  must  but  that  men  may  in  "the  twinkling  of 
an  eye  "  be  miraculously  delivered  from  the  guilt  and  bondage  of 
sin.  With  some  the  change  is  swift,  startling,  dramatic;  the 
tide  of  the  new  life  comes  in  like  the  waters  of  the  Solway,  with 
a  rush  and  a  roar  carrying  all  before  it  in  one  mighty  sweep. 
With  others  the  change  is  long  and  slow,  so  long  and  slow  that 
they  are  never  able  to  date  it,  or  to  speak  of  it  as  a  single, 
definite  act.  Sometimes  the  light  breaks  as  in  our  land  comes 
the  dawn,  soft  and  gray,  and  with  long  twilight;  sometimes  as  in 
eastern  climes,  where  day  leaps  on  the  earth  full  born.  But 
there  is  no  need  to  argue  about  these  things ;  they  are  matters 
of  every-day  experience ;  and  a  full  recognition  of  them  is  one  of 
the  commonplaces  of  every  evangelical  pulpit. 

i  Edinburgh.  2  "The  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience,"  pp.  227-8. 


76  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

(3)  Closely  linked  with  the  doctrine  of  Conversion  is  Wesley's 
doctrine  of  the  Witness  of  the  Spirit.  Wesley  taught  not  only 
that  all  men  may  be  saved,  but  that  all  men  may  know  they  are 
saved.  When  the  Great  Revival  began,  writes  Dr.  Dale,  "the  re- 
ligious life  of  England — its  best  religious  life — was  wanting  in 
buoyancy,  courage,  vigor,  adventure,  and  even  among  devout 
men  that  joy  of  the  Holy  Ghost  which  can  never  be  known  apart 
from  the  certainty  of  personal  salvation  was  not  general.  But 
Wesley  knew  that  he  himself  had  received  from  God  the  direct 
assurance  of  the  forgiveness  of  sins  and  of  his  Divine  sonship. 
He  refused  to  believe  that  this  was  an  exceptional  privilege,  in- 
accessible to  other  men.  What  he  had  received,  every  man  that 
believed  in  Christ  might  receive,  for  the  glorious  blessings  which 
God  has  given  to  men  in  Christ  are  the  common  inheritance  of  all 
believers.  From  the  very  first,  therefore,  he  insisted  that  no  man 
should  rest  until  the  same  Divinely  authenticated  certainty  came 
to  him."1  And  the  preaching  of  that  rediscovered  truth  was  like 
the  ringing  of  innumerable  bells  which  for  generations  had  hung 
silent  and  joyless  in  dark,  forsaken  towers.  The  early  Methodists 
set  their  faith  to  music,  and  the  music  breaks  out  continually  in 
their  glorious  hymnology — 

My  God,  the  spring  of  all  my  joys, 

The  life  of  my  delights, 
The  glory  of  my  brightest  days, 

And  comfort  of  my  nights. 

And  again — 

Happy  the  souls  to  Jesus  joined 

And  saved  by  grace  alone, 
Walking  in  all  His  ways  they  find 
Their  heaven  on  earth  begun. 

They  did  not  know — the  men  who  sang  these  hymns — the  sun- 
less gulfs  of  doubt ;  they  trod  the  sunlit  heights  of  faith.  They 
could  not  sing  the  sad  litanies  of  sorrow;  they  shouted  the  jubilant 
Te  Deums  of  triumph  and  of  gladness. 

My  soul  looks  back  to  see 

The  burden  Thou  didst  bear 
When  hanging  on  the  accursed  tree, 

And  hopes  her  guilt  was  there — 

so  wrote  Isaac  Watts,  the  sweet  singer  of  English  Nonconformity. 
"Nay,"  cried  the  Methodist,  "And  knows  her  guilt  was  there"; 

i  "  Fellowship  with  Christ,"  p.  238. 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  77 

and  so  to  this  day  the  hymn  stands  in  every  Methodist  hymn  book. 
And  not  in  our  hymn  book  only,  but  so  is  it  written  in  every 
Methodist  heart.  There  is  no  part  of  the  great  tradition  com- 
mitted to  our  trust  that  we  prize  more  than  this,  or  that  we  guard 
with  a  more  jealous  care.  Our  people  are  not,  as  a  rule,  quickly 
sensitive  to  differing  shades  of  theological  thought,  and  on  some 
subjects  it  might  be  possible  for  a  preacher  to  teach  questionable 
doctrine  without  exciting  any  general  alarm  among  his  hearers; 
but  a  false  note  in  the  pulpit  on  this  subject  would  be  detected 
and  resented  at  once.  The  joyful  assurance  of  the  favor  of  God 
is  one  of  the  chief  marks  of  a  Methodist.  But  for  this,  as  Dr. 
Dale  has  said,  Methodism  would  never  have  had  its  great  army 
of  lay  preachers  and  class  leaders.  And  still  more  this  is  the 
doctrine  which  belongs  in  a  peculiar  sense  to  the  common  people 
of  Methodism.  Give  them  this  in  reality  and  in  power,  and  they 
will  not  complain,  though  you  give  them  little  else.  But  with- 
hold this,  and  though  you  give  them  all  else,  they  will  still  feel  as 
men  who  have  been  robbed  of  their  spiritual  birthright. l 

(4)  I  close  these  brief  notes  on  Methodist  doctrine  with  a 
reference  to  the  dark  and  awful  problem  of  Future  Retribution. 
In  Dr.  Dale's  summary  of  the  characteristic  doctrines  of  the 
Evangelical  Revival,  "those  which  its  preachers  were  constantly 
reiterating  and  on  which  they  insisted  most  vehemently,"  he 
names  as  the  fourth  and  last,  "the  eternal  suffering  to  which  they 
believed  that  those  are  destined  who  have  heard  the  Christian 
Gospel  in  this  life  and  rejected  it."2  He  then  goes  on  to  point 
out,  in  words  which  I  could  wish  to  transfer  bodily  to  my  own 
pages,  the  great  change  which  the  belief  of  large  numbers  of  per- 
sons now  belonging  to  Evangelical  Churches  has  undergone  in 
relation  to  this  subject.  There  are  some — their  number  is  prob- 
ably small — who  have  accepted  what  is  commonly  known  as  the 
theory  of  Universal  Restoration,  who  believe,  i.e.,  that  all  men 
will  certainly  at  last  reach  the  blessedness  and  glory  of  eternal 
union  with  God.  Others  again  there  are — and  it  is  well  known 
that  Dale  himself  was  one  of  them — whose  study  of  the  New 
Testament  has  led  them  to  the  conclusion  that  men  possess 
immortality  only  in  Christ,  and  that  consequently  those  in  this 
world  who  have  rejected  Him  are  destined  to  eternal  destruction, 
to  a  second  death  from  which  there  is  no  resurrection.  Others 
again  can  reach  no  definite  and  positive  position;  they  find  in  the 

i  A  few  sentences  in  this  section  are  taken       2 »  The  Old  Evangelicalism  and  the  New," 
from  my  little  volume  "  Memoranda  Paul-     p.  37. 
Ina." 


78  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

words  of  Christ  and  His  Apostles  apparently  conflicting  teaching. 
Such,  according  to  Dale,  is  the  present  position  of  the  doctrine 
in  our  Evangelical  Churches.  How  far  are  his  words  true  of 
Methodism  ?  That  we  have  been  greatly  influenced  by  the  general 
modification  of  belief  it  is  impossible  to  deny,  though  how  far  the 
change  has  gone  it  is  not  easy  to  say.  So  far  as  I  am  able  to 
judge,  dogmatic  Universalism  finds  no  place  amongst  us  at  all.  A 
few,  perhaps,  especially  since  the  publication  of  Dr.  Joseph  Agar 
Beet's  work  on  the  "Last  Things,"  have  been  looking  toward 
the  doctrine  of  Conditional  Immortality  for  relief  from  the  agon- 
izing burden  of  the  old  belief.  But  the  overwhelming  majority 
of  those  to  whom  a  restatement  of  their  faith  has  become  a 
necessity,  would  probably  prefer  to  class  themselves  among  those 
who  can  reach  no  definite  and  positive  conclusion.  I  am  told,  on 
the  highest  authority,  that  the  late  Dr.  Moulton,  who  held  an  un- 
rivalled position  in  Wesleyan  Methodism  as  a  saintly  scholar,  was 
wont,  in  private,  to  describe  his  own  attitude  as  one  of  "reverent 
agnosticism."  The  phrase  not  inaptly  describes  the  state  of  mind 
of  multitudes  of  his  younger  brethren  to-day.  On  the  one  hand 
they  can  receive  neither  Universal  Restoration  nor  Conditional 
Immortality,  for  they  are  resolved  to  be  loyal  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and  they  do  not  find  either  of  these  doctrines  there.  On 
the  other  hand,  they  dare  not  speak  as  did  many  of  their  fathers 
of  the  doom  of  the  lost,  for  neither  can  they  find  warrant  for 
this  in  the  words  either  of  Christ  or  His  Apostles.  Therefore 
they  are  agnostics.  Yet  this  does  not  mean  that  they  doubt  the 
reality  of  future  penalty,  or  are  silent  concerning  it.  Again  I 
say,  their  aim  is  to  be  loyal  to  Christ;  and  since  He  warned  men 
of  the  consequences  of  sin,  they  dare  not  cease  to  warn  them  too, 
"The  words  of  Christ,"  they  believe  with  Dr.  Dale,  "however  in- 
definite they  may  be  with  regard  to  the  kind  of  penalty  which  is 
to  come  upon  those  who  live  and  die  in  revolt  against  God,  and 
however  indefinite  they  may  be  with  regard  to  the  duration  of 
the  penalty,  are  words  which  shake  the  heart  with  fear."  Of  this 
they  are  sure;  beyond  this  they  know  nothing,  and  can  say 
nothing. 1 

iln  a  letter  dated  September  2,  1881,  etc.,  and  the  parallel  passages;  the  other, 

Dr.  Alexander  Maclaren  writes :  "I  do  not  which,  taken  in  all  its  width  of  possible 

believe  that  the  New  Testament  shuts  us  meaning,  seems  to  assert  universal  restor- 

up  to  the   Eternal  Punishment   theory,  ation,   e.g.,  the  great  passage  in  Ephe- 

There  seem  to  me  to  be  two  streams  of  sians  i.  and  its  parallels.  Whichever  theory 

representation  in  it,  one  of  which,  if  taken  is  taken,  one  set  of  Scripture  passages 

in  all  its  width  of  possible  meaning,  seems  must  be  somewhat  strained  to  cover  it. 

to  assert  it,  e.g.,  'These  shall  go  away,'  I  therefore  believe  that  it  is  intended  to 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  79 


£!]£  Characteristic  Spirit  af  IttetlioMsm 

OF  the  last  division  of  my  subject — the  characteristic  spirit  of 
Methodism — I  have  left  myself  but  little  time  to  speak. 
What  was  it  for  which  the  early  Methodists  cared  supremely? 
The  answer,  I  think,  is  not  difficult  to  give.  Let  me  state  it 
negatively  first.  They  were  not,  as  has  already  been  said,  great 
students  of  theology.  It  interested  them,  but  rather  for  their 
work's  sake  than  for  its  own  sake.  Indeed,  the  whole  movement 
can  hardly  be  said  to  have  produced  any  really  great  theologian, 
or  left  behind  it  any  permanent  literary  memorial.  The  Calvin- 
istic  controversy,  which  raged  with  such  sound  and  fury  during 
many  years  of  "Wesley's  life,  yielded  an  immense  crop  of  books 
and  pamphlets,  but  very  little  which,  for  the  credit  of  the  con- 
troversialists themselves,  one  would  not  rather  forget.  Mr.  Lecky, 
it  is  true,  thinks  that  the  literature  of  the  moment  has  scarcely 
obtained  adequate  recognition  in  literary  history,1  but  nothing 
that  he  says  makes  necessary  any  modification  of  the  statement 
which  has  just  been  made.  One  has  only  to  glance  at  such  a 
summary  of  the  literature  of  the  Revival  as  is  given  in  Canon 
Overtones  little  volume, 2  to  see  how  small  was  the  contribution 
which  eighteenth-century  Methodism  made  to  the  permanent 
stores  of  English  theology.  Neither  was  it  greatly  concerned 
with  the  disciplining  and  moral  perfecting  of  those  whom  it  had 
rescued  from  sin  and  brought  to  God.  That  a  great  moral  refor- 
mation followed  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  goes  without 
saying.  There  is  justice,  nevertheless,  in  the  criticism  that  the 
movement  as  a  whole  lacked  "ethical  originality";  it  too  often 
failed  "to  afford  to  those  whom  it  had  restored  to  God  a  lofty 
ideal  of  practical  righteousness  and  a  healthy,  vigorous,  moral 
training."  And  if  Methodism  thought  too  little  of  ethics,  and  still 
less  of  theology,  least  of  all  did  it  care  about  politics.  The  idea 
which  of  late  years  has  laid  hold  of  our  minds  with  such  strength, 
that  the  State  no  less  than  the  Church  is  a  Divine  institution,  and 

reserve  the  question  of  the  eternal  condi-  there  is  enough  in  the  fact  of  future  retri- 

tion  of  rebellious  wills,  hidden  beneath  a  bution  to  make  the  Gospel  precious  as  a 

veil  of  solemn  mystery.  ...  So,  on  the  means  of  escape  from  it  as  well  as  for 

whole,  I  leave  the  fate  of  these  unbelieving  higher  reasons." 

souls  in  the  solemn  darkness  where,   I  i "  History  of  England  in  the  Eighteenth 

think,  the  Bible  leaves  it,  assured  that  Century,"  vol.  iii.,  p.  120. 

each  will  go  to  'his  men  place'  for  which  2  "The  Evangelical  Revival  in  the  Eigh- 

he  is  fitted  by  character,  and  believing  teenth  Century"  (" Epochs  of  Church  His- 

that,  without  any  theory  on  the  duration,  tory  Series"),  ch.  vii. 


80  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

that  it  is  every  man's  duty  before  God  to  see  that  his  country  is 
well  governed,  had  little  or  no  place  in  the  minds  of  the  early 
Methodists.  "You  have  nothing  to  do,"  Wesley  told  his  Helpers, 
"but  to  save  souls."  The  two  hymns  most  frequently  sung,  it  is 
said,  during  the  first  century  and  a  quarter  of  our  history  were — 

A  charge  to  keep  I  have, 
and 

Be  it  my  only  wisdom  here 

To  serve  the  Lord  with  filial  fear. 

Even  to  this  day  the  Mte  noir  of  many  excellent  members  of  our 
Church  is  what  is  sometimes  termed  the  "political  Dissenter." 
No,  it  was  not  to  the  reconstruction  of  theology,  nor  yet  to  the 
application  of  the  law  of  Christ  to  the  whole  life  of  man  in  the 
manifold  relations  of  modern  civilization,  that  the  Methodism  of 
the  first  days  gave  its  best  strength.  It  was  not  for  these  things 
that  it  cared  supremely,  but,  as  Dale  says  again,  "for  men,  for 
living  men  who  were  to  be  saved  or  lost,  on  whom  it  had  to  press, 
with  tears  and  agony  and  prayers,  the  Gospel  of  Christ  in  order 
to  save  them."1  The  birth-throes  of  early  Methodism  were  its 
passion  to  win  men  for  God;  let  this  be  done,  they  said,  and  all 
will  be  well.  This  was  the  spirit  of  the  Methodism  of  our  fathers. 
Is  it  ours  to-day? 

We  may  justly  claim,  I  think,  to  have  done  something  to 
remedy  some  of  the  defects  of  which  I  have  spoken  in  the  old 
Evangelical  ideal.  Our  preaching  to-day  takes  without  doubt 
a  wider  ethical  range.  Ruskin's  words,  that  if  Christianity  is 
good  for  anything  it  is  good  for  everything,  have  become  one  of 
the  stock  commonplaces  of  our  pulpits.  All  the  Lord's  prophets 
now  must  needs  prophesy  concerning  what  are  called  the  "  ques- 
tions of  the  hour."  Moreover,  though  we  should  resent  as 
strongly  as  ever  any  attempt  to  make  our  Church  the  ally  of 
any  political  party,  we  no  longer  believe  that  politics  are  of  the 
devil.  Our  people  have  learned  that  if  the  will  of  God  is  to  be 
done  on  earth,  Christian  men  must  take  their  share  of  public 
burdens;  they  must  be  ready  to  serve  him  on  Boards  of 
Health,  in  Town  Councils,  and  in  the  House  of  Commons  no 
less  than  as  leaders  and  office-bearers  of  the  Church.  In  a 
word,  Methodism  has  to-day  what  for  so  long  it  lacked  —  a  civic 
conscience. 

Of  our  attitude  toward  the  problems  of  theology  it  is  not 
possible,  I  fear,  to  speak  with  the  same  satisfaction.  Theology 
as  yet  has  not  come  to  its  own  among  us.  We  have  suffered,  as 

i  "  The  Old  Evangelicalism  and  the  New,"  p.  21. 


WESLEYAN  UNIVEESITY  81 

all  the  Churches  have  suffered,  from  the  popular  but  unspeakably 
foolish  depreciation  of  this,  the  loftiest  form  of  intellectual 
activity.  Of  fervent  evangelists  and  earnest,  practical  workers, 
of  wise  and  far-seeing  statesmen  we  have  no  serious  lack ;  but 
the  great  Christian  thinker  is  wanting.  It  is  not  altogether  to 
our  credit  that,  with  one  or  two  exceptions,  the  most  influential 
teachers  of  Methodism  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  have 
not  themselves  been  Methodists.  Paradox  though  it  may  sound, 
the  chief  Methodist  theologian  of  recent  years  has  been  Robert 
William  Dale,  the  Congregationalist.  The  situation,  as  any 
thoughtful  person  must  realize,  is  full  of  peril.  At  any  mo- 
ment some  great  question  may  be  sprung  upon  us  for  which, 
through  lack  of  competent  leadership,  we  are  wholly  unprepared ; 
a  panic  may  ensue  and,  as  has  more  than  once  happened  in 
circumstances  of  this  kind,  the  controversy  may  be  closed  not  by 
answering  the  question  but  by  ejecting  the  questioner.1 

And  yet,  important  as  this  matter  is — far  more  important 
probably  than  most  of  us  suppose — it  can  never  be  for  us  the 
primary  matter.  We  Methodists  ought  to  care  for  Christian 
ethics ;  we  ought  to  care  much  more  than  we  do  for  Christian 
theology ;  but  it  is  for  men,  for  dying  men  who  need  the  gospel 
of  the  grace  of  God,  for  whom  we  must  care  supremely.  From 
the  very  beginning  we  have  had:  our  place  among  the  Churches 
of  Christendom,  not  by  reason  of  the  breadth  of  our  social  sym- 
pathies, or  the  greatness  of  our  intellectual  service,  but  because 
of  our  "  brave  and  fervent  spirit  of  aggressive  evangelism."  If 
we  let  that  go  we  have  torn  up  our  charter,  we  have  forfeited  our 
right  to  be.  We  may  still  go  on  discussing  "questions  of  the 
hour,"  and  feeding  the  souls  of  the  hungry  with  little,  half- 
baked  expositions  of  great  social  problems,  but  our  work  will  be 
done,  and  it  will  not  be  long  before  the  savorless  salt  cast  forth 
of  God  is  trodden  under  foot  of  men.  It  was,  I  repeat,  the  pas- 
sion to  win  men  for  God  which  first  made  of  us  a  people ;  and 
when  that  holy  fire  burns  no  more  upon  our  altars,  Methodism 
will  have  become  what  your  great  New  England  poet  has 
described — a 

Ruined  shrine 

Whence  worship  ne'er  shall  rise  again ; 
The  tat  and  owl  inhabit  here, 

The  snake  nests  in  the  altar  stone, 
The  sacred  vessels  moulder  near, 

The  image  of  the  God  is  gone. 

i  See  "  The  Present  Desiderata  of  Theology,"  by  Dr.  J.  Stalker. 
("  Expositor,"  fourth  series,  vol.  i.,  p.  241.) 


82  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

But,  brethren,  we  are  persuaded  better  things  of  you,  and  we  bid 
you  to  believe  better  things  of  us.  We  are  not  recreant  to  our 
fathers'  faith ;  we  are  not  traitors  to  their  solemn  trust.  Our 
work  —  ours  and  yours  —  is  not  done ;  the  best  is  yet  to  be.  This 
is  not  the  time,  it  never  is  the  time,  for  noisy  self-congratula- 
tions or  unhallowed  boastings,  but  I  should  fail  in  a  plain  duty  if 
I  did  not  bring  to  you  from  across  the  sea  a  word  of  encourage- 
ment and  hope.  A  breath  from  the  upper  heavens  has  fallen 
again  upon  our  English  Methodism.  A  new  spirit  is  stirring 
within  her,  or  rather  the  old  spirit  is  awake  once  more,  that 
"  brave  and  fervent  spirit  of  aggressive  evangelism,"  which  was 
her  chiefest  glory  in  her  greatest  days.  God  gave  us  Hugh 
Price  Hughes,  a  leader  and  evangelist  after  Wesley's  own  heart, 
and  God  has  taken  him  away,  but  not  until  through  him  the 
Church  to  which  he  gave  his  life  had  been  led  back  to  its  first 
love  and  its  first  works.  More,  perhaps,  than  any  of  us  yet  know 
we  owe  to  him  the  revival  in  our  midst  of  the  only  kind  of 
evangelism  by  which  England  can  be  won  and  held  for  Christ — 
the  evangelism  in  which  zeal  and  culture,  religion  and  theology, 
the  heart  and  the  intellect,  are  yoked  in  one  common  service,  the 
evangelism  of  John  Wesley  and  the  Apostle  Paul.  And  while 
that  spirit  lives  and  is  strong  in  her  sons  Methodism  cannot  die, 
her  work  is  not  done. 


MONDAY  AFTERNOON 
JUNE  29 


ADDRESS 

BY  HEKRY  CEUISE  MUKPHY  INGBAHAM 

* 
3tt  rtje  Eaping  of  tjje  Cornerstone  of  rtje 


WE  are  met  in  conformity  with  an  ancient  and  honored 
custom.  These  noble  buildings  about  us  have  had  their 
gatherings  to  celebrate  the  laying  of  their  corner-stones.  Many 
of  the  churches  and  cathedrals  throughout  our  land  rest  upon 
corner-stones  laid  with  the  prayers  of  the  clergy  and  the  bless- 
ings of  God.  Far  back  through  the  ages  the  custom  has  been 
revered.  That  venerable  society  which  looks  to  Solomon  as  its 
founder  cherishes  the  tradition  that  he,  in  all  his  glory,  laid  the 
foundation  of  that  temple  in  Jerusalem  whose  fame  can  never 
perish  from  the  earth  ;  and  far  back  of  Solomon's  time  we  hear 
the  voice  of  the  Lord  inquiring  of  Job,  "  Where  wast  thou  when 
I  laid  the  foundations  of  the  earth  ...  or  who  laid  the  corner- 
stone thereof,  when  the  morning  stars  sang  together  and  all  the 
sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy  ?  " 

This  building  is  to  be  the  John  Bell  Scott  Memorial,  a  La- 
boratory of  Physical  Science  ;  and  is  the  munificent  gift  of  Mr. 
Charles  Scott  of  Philadelphia,  who,  for  twenty-four  continuous 
years  has  been  conspicuous  for  his  faithfulness  and  usefulness  in 
the  Board  of  Trustees  of  Wesleyan  University,  and  of  his  son, 
Mr.  Charles  Scott,  Jr.,  who  was  graduated  from  this  University 
in  1886. 

These  two  men,  with  a  generosity  more  easy  for  us  to  ad- 
mire than  to  imitate,  but  which  it  would  be  delightful  to  have 
imitated,  have  appropriated  over  $100,000  for  its  erection.  Such 
a  benefaction  fills  our  hearts  with  gratitude. 

It  is  a  matter  of  heartfelt  regret  that  the  ill  health  of  Mr. 
Charles  Scott,  Sr.,  deprives  us  of  his  presence  on  this  occasion. 
It  is  a  great  delight,  however,  that  Mr.  Charles  Scott,  Jr.,  is 
6*  85 


86  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

present,  and  will  lay  the  corner-stone  of  this  Memorial ;  and  it  is 
meet  and  proper  that  we  should  rejoice  with  prayer  and  hymn 
and  ceremony  over  the  inception  of  this  building,  conceived,  as  it 
has  been,  in  wisdom,  and  made  possible  by  the  love  of  its  donors 
for  a  noble  son  and  brother,  and  by  their  loyalty  to  the  Univer- 
sity and  to  the  investigation  of  truth. 

The  poet  sees  that  "Earth's  crammed  with  heaven."  The 
scientist  finds  that  earth's  crammed  with  truth,  imperishable,  un- 
changeable truth.  And  the  knowledge  of  these  truths  is  useful 
to  man.  Indeed,  it  was  long  ago  asked,  "  Shall  we  not  as  well 
discern  the  riches  of  Nature's  warehouse  as  the  benefit  of  her 
shop?  Is  truth  ever  barren?" 

Mr.  John  Bell  Scott  was  born  February  17,  1862,  and  was 
graduated  from  Wesleyan  University  in  1881.  He  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Alpha  Delta  Phi  fraternity.  On  returning  home  to 
Philadelphia,  after  graduation,  he  entered  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  there  pursued  the  study  of  medicine  for  two 
years,  and  then  broke  off  to  engage  in  business  with  his  father. 
But  in  1896  he  returned  again  to  his  medical  studies.  There 
often  comes  to  a  noble  soul  in  his  early  manhood  a  sense  of  duty 
to  his  fellow-men,  and  a  response  from  within  of  conscious 
ability,  and  a  willingness  to  meet  the  duty.  The  character  of 
such  a  man,  not  infrequently,  seems  to  be  an  inheritance  from 
both  his  parents.  And  so  it  was  that  this  young  man  suddenly 
awoke  to  find  himself  endowed  with  the  resoluteness,  resource- 
fulness, executive  ability  and  perseverance  of  his  father,  and 
with  the  kindly,  unselfish  devotion  to  others'  welfare,  of  that 
mother  whose  determination  and  faith  knew  no  defeat,  but  ever 
converted  the  ideal  into  the  real.  So  this  young  man,  while 
pursuing  his  medical  studies,  devoted  himself  to  the  service  of  the 
young  men  of  the  University  and  of  the  City. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  Mr.  H.  H.  Houston  erected,  as  a 
memorial  to  his  son,  the  ample  and  costly  building  of  the  Houston 
Club  at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  for  the  accommodation 
of  the  students  of  the  University  in  their  social  and  religious  life. 
At  the  solicitation  of  Provost  Harrison,  Mr.  Scott  organized  the 
club,  and  also  in  connection  therewith  conducted  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  of  the  University. 

Mr.  Scott  believed  in  Prohibition,  and  I  am  informed  that  he 
was  for  some  years  the  leader  of  the  Prohibition  party  both  in 
his  city  and  in  his  State.  He  was  not  ambitious  for  public  office. 
Yet  he  believed  it  to  be  the  duty  of  every  man  to  publicly  avow 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  87 

his  convictions  on  civic  questions,  and,  therefore,  to  this  end  he 
allowed  himself  to  be  at  one  time  or  another  a  candidate  of  that 
party  for  nearly  every  office  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia  and  of  the 
State  of  Pennsylvania.  He  was  also  for  years  the  acting  secretary 
and  a  manager  of  the  Law  and  Order  Association  of  his  city. 

He  was  loyal  to  his  country.  When  the  call  of  our  Government 
was  made  for  service  in  the  Spanish-American  War  in  1898  he 
hastened  to  Washington  and  offered  his  services  as  an  assistant 
surgeon  in  the  navy.  This  position  was  denied  him  because  he 
had  not  yet  received  his  degree  in  the  medical  course.  Resource- 
ful and  undaunted,  he  forthwith  called  upon  President  McKinley 
and,  telling  him  that  he  was  a  licensed  preacher,  asked  for  a  posi- 
tion as  a  chaplain  in  the  navy.  The  President,  pleased  with  his 
ingenuity  and  zeal,  at  once  directed  the  Assistant  Secretary  of 
the  Navy,  Theodore  Roosevelt,  to  commission  Mr.  Scott  as  acting 
chaplain  of  the  U.  S.  Cruiser  St.  Paul  with  the  rank  of  lieu- 
tenant. It  is  believed  that  this  is  the  only  appointment  to  the 
position  of  acting  chaplain  ever  made  in  the  history  of  the  navy. 
Lieutenant  Scott  immediately  made  himself  felt  not  only  as 
chaplain  but  as  assistant  to  the  surgeon,  and  quickly  gained  the 
affections  of  the  officers  and  men  of  the  cruiser.  One  of  the 
officers  of  the  St.  Paul  says  that  on  no  United  States  war-ship 
were  religious  exercises  so  well  attended  by  officers  as  on  the 
St.  Paul,  and  that  the  officers  all  went  to  hear  Lieutenant  Scott 
because  he  always  had  something  helpful  to  say,  and  said  it  in  an 
attractive  way. 

But,  alas !  the  excessive  heat  of  Cuba  and  the  ardor  of  his  own 
energy  in  performing  these  double  services,  both  to  the  bodies 
and  souls  of  the  officers  and  the  men  upon  the  cruiser,  were  more 
than  strength  could  endure,  and,  overcome  with  fever,  he  was 
obliged  to  leave  the  ship  on  the  7th  of  July  and  return  home  to 
his  wife  and  child  and  parents  and  brother  and  sisters  and 
fellow-citizens,  to  die  a  martyr  to  the  cause  of  humanity  and  the 
freedom  of  the  Cubans.  He  died  on  July  15,  1898. 

Thus  closed,  too  soon,  the  work  of  John  Bell  Scott  among  his 
fellow-men.  In  these  few  years  of  early  manhood  he  had  made 
himself  essential  to  the  happiness  and  welfare  of  many.  Though 
holding  positions  to  which  belonged  salaries,  he  always  declined 
such  compensation,  seeking  no  other  satisfaction  than  the  con- 
sciousness of  duty  performed.  The  students  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania  placed  in  the  main  hall  of  the  Houston  Club  a 
memorial  tablet  on  which  were  engraved  the  most  affectionate 


88  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

and  appreciative  sentiments,  prepared  by  Professor  Josiah  H. 
Penniman,  Dean  of  the  University. 

Since  preparing  this  address  I  have  received  a  letter  from 
Provost  Harrison  from  which  I  would  like  to  read.  He  says: 

DEAR  SIR  :  Mr.  John  Bell  Scott  was  a  well-beloved  student  of  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania,  and  President  of  the  Houston  Club  at  the  time  of  his  death. 
I  knew  him  very  well,  and  he  was  a  young  man  of  the  highest  character  and 
of  the  highest  purpose.  .  .  .  His  name  and  influence  will  not  be  forgotten  at 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

C.  C.  HARRISON. 

The  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  also  spread  upon  their 
minutes  a  brief  account  of  his  life,  concluding  with  these  words: 

Attractive  in  appearance,  unusually  bright  in  mind,  a  ready  speaker,  full  of 
enthusiasm  and  energy,  and  of  a  kind  heart  and  of  a  generous  spirit,  he  was 
peculiarly  fitted  to  lead  and  help  young  men.  For  more  than  ten  years,  when 
health  permitted,  he  labored  unceasingly  in  connection  with  this  organiza- 
tion. The  intelligence  of  his  death  was  received  with  profound  sorrow  by 
the  members  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  of  Philadelphia,  and  by  hundreds  of  others 
who  have  been  helped  from  time  to  time  by  his  sympathetic  Christian  service. 

How  wise  is  the  conception  of  this  gift  and  the  selection  of  the 
location  for  this  Memorial !  It  is  not  to  be  situated  away  from 
mankind,  but  it  is  to  stand  among  the  friends  of  Mr.  Scott,  where 
the  eyes  that  shall  look  upon  it  will  be  loving  eyes.  It  is  not  to 
be  in  some  overcrowded  city,  but  in  this  charming  New  England 
town  amidst  groves  and  hills  and  streams  of  living  waters,  and  in 
an  atmosphere  vibrant  with  the  songs  of  birds.  Mr.  Scott  spent 
most  of  his  manhood,  and  did  most  of  his  work,  in  a  university, 
and  it  seems  peculiarly  fitting  that  this  Memorial  should  stand 
not  in  some  mart  of  trade,  or  some  hidden  churchyard,  but  sur- 
rounded by  the  atmosphere  and  associations  of  a  university. 

And  the  very  spot  on  which  it  is  to  stand  seems  to  me,  at 
least,  most  appropriate.  When  some  beautiful  spire  rises  above 
a  grand  cathedral,  is  it  not  so  that  the  cathedral  gives  gran- 
deur to  the  spire?  And  will  not  this  spot,  so  elevated,  so  con- 
spicuous, with  such  favorable  outlook  upon  the  college  grounds 
and  buildings  and  upon  the  town,  be  made  more  attractive  by 
this  building,  and,  in  kindly  response,  make  more  impressive  the 
beauty  of  the  Memorial  I 

Is  it  not  wise  also,  that  this  building,  while  it  shall  be  a  Me- 
morial, shall  not  be  a  Memorial  to  the  exclusion  of  all  other 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  89 

uses?  Our  cemeteries  are  beautiful  with  the  monuments  to 
their  silent  tenants.  A  grateful  people  often  make  the  forms 
of  their  heroes  in  enduring  stone  or  bronze  or  build  lofty  shafts 
to  their  memory.  The  Pharaohs  builded  the  pyramids  for  their 
own  sepulchres.  Artemisia  erected  one  of  the  seven  wonders  of 
the  world  as  a  tomb  for  her  deceased  husband,  Mausolus.  These 
Memorials  are  magnificent  expressions,  either  of  the  public 
gratitude,  or  of  the  power  of  kings,  or  of  the  affection  of  the  liv- 
ing for  the  dead. 

But  the  building  which  is  to  arise  upon  this  corner-stone  is 
to  be  more  than  a  tribute  to  the  dead;  it  is  to  do  something 
more  than  to  awaken  our  admiration  and  amazement.  It  is  to 
make  the  University  more  attractive,  and  more  useful  in  the 
future,  than  ever  it  has  been  in  the  past;  it  is  to  be  a  temple 
dedicated  to  the  investigation  and  discovery  of  those  truths 
which  God  has  concealed  in  Nature,  and  which  it  is  the  province 
and  the  glory  of  man  to  reveal ;  it  is  to  be  a  laboratory  wherein 
the  energies  of  inanimate  matter  shall  be  made  subservient  to  the 
uses  of  man. 

As  unnumbered  youths  shall  throng  these  grounds  in  the 
coming  years,  this  laboratory  will  help  them  to  find  here  that 
ideal  University,  in  which,  Mr.  Huxley  says,  "  a  man  should 
be  able  to  obtain  instruction  in  all  forms  of  knowledge,  and 
discipline  in  the  use  of  all  the  methods  by  which  knowledge 
is  obtained  .  .  .  and  the  very  air  he  breathes  should  be  charged 
with  that  enthusiasm  for  truth,  that  fanaticism  of  veracity, 
which  is  a  greater  possession  than  much  learning,  a  nobler  gift 
than  the  power  of  increasing  knowledge;  by  as  much  greater 
and  nobler  than  these,  as  the  moral  nature  of  man  is  greater  than 
the  intellectual." 

After  the  conquest  of  Jerusalem  by  Pompey  the  Great,  it 
is  said  that  he  went,  with  the  manner  and  spirit  of  a  Roman  con- 
queror, to  the  temple,  and  with  profane  hands  thrust  aside  the 
curtain  to  the  Holy  of  Holies  and  entered  into  the  presence  of 
the  Shekinah.  But  he  saw  no  light.  His  curiosity  was  un- 
hallowed. He  was  one  of  those  whom  Christ  characterized  by 
this  question  to  his  disciples:  "Having  eyes,  see  ye  not?" 

May  the  students  that  enter  this  temple  in  their  search  for 
knowledge,  come,  not  with  prejudices  and  antagonism  and  un- 
willingness to  accept  the  truth,  but  may  they  remember  the 
saying  of  Lord  Bacon  in  regard  to  the  study  of  Nature :  "  It  is  a 
point  fit  and  necessary  in  the  front  and  beginning  of  this  work, 


90  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

without  hesitation  or  reservation,  to  be  professed,  that  it  is  no 
less  true  in  this  human  kingdom  of  knowledge  than  in  God's 
kingdom,  of  heaven,  that  no  man  shall  enter  into  it  except  he 
become  first  as  a  little  child." 

May  the  students  of  coming  generations  as  they  use  this  gift 
ever  emulate  that  nobility  of  character  which  this  building  is  in- 
tended to  commemorate. 


At  the  actual  laying  of  the  corner-stone,  on  Tuesday,  the 
following  remarks  were  made  by 

CHAELES  SCOTT,  JR. 


T7RIENDS,  permit  me  in  the  name  of  my  father  and  myself 
-F  to  thank  you  sincerely  for  the  honor  and  respect  you  have 
shown  the  memory  of  my  brother  by  your  attendance  at  these 
exercises,  and  also  for  the  many  loving  words  you  have  spoken  of 
him. 

I  now  declare  laid  the  corner-stone  of  the  John  Bell  Scott 
Memorial,  Laboratory  of  Physical  Science.  When  this  building 
shall  have  been  erected  and  dedicated  to  its  intended  use,  may 
those  who  occupy  it  for  years  to  come  ever  hold  in  loving  remem- 
brance him  whose  name  it  bears,  and  in  whose  memory,  and  to 
the  Glory  of  God,  it  is  given. 


THE  Box  DEPOSITED  IN  THE  COKNER-STONE  CONTAINED 
THE  FOLLOWING  PAPERS  AND  PHOTOGEAPHS: 

Charter  and  By-laws  of  Wesleyan  University. 
Supplement  to  the  "Alumni  Record"  of  Wesleyan  University, 

5th  edition. 
Annual  Catalogue  of  Wesleyan  University,  1902-1903. 

Wesleyan  University  Regulations,  1902. 
Rules  of  Wesleyan  University  governing  Eligibility  to 

Athletic  Teams. 
Wesleyan  University  Bulletins,  Nos.  31  and  32. 


WESLEYAN  UNIVEESITY  91 

Photographs  of  Wesleyan  University  Grounds  and 
Buildings,  viz. : 

The  Campus.  The  Library. 

College  Row.  Judd  Hall. 

North  College.  Observatory  Hall. 

South  College.  The  Electrical  Laboratory. 

Memorial  Chapel.  Fay er weather  Gymnasium. 

Various  Circulars  concerning  Wesleyan  University,  viz. : 

Wesleyan  University  and  the  Wesley  Bicentennial. 

Celebration  of  the  Wesley  Bicentennial  by  Wesleyan  University. 

Programme  of  Commencement  Week,  1903. 

Undergraduate  Life  at  Wesleyan. 

Wesleyan,  Her  Record  and  Her  Needs. 

Shall  I  go  to  College  ? 

Shall  I  go  to  Wesleyan  ? 

Expenses  at  Wesleyan. 

Opportunities  for  Self-help  at  Wesleyan. 

Photograph  of  John  Bell  Scott. 
"  Wesleyan  Argus,"  of  October  12,  1898,  containing 

notice  of  the  death  of  John  Bell  Scott. 
Copy  of  the  Address  of  Mr.  Henry  C.  M.  Ingraham  at 

the  laying  of  this  corner-stone. 
Programme  of  the  exercises  of  laying  this  corner-stone. 

"  Wesleyan  Argus,"  June  10,  1903. 
"  Wesleyan  Literary  Monthly,"  June,  1903. 

"  Olla  Podrida"  of  class  of  1904. 
"  Christian  Advocate,"  June  25,  1903. 

"  Zion's  Herald,"  June  24,  1903. 
"  Middletown  Tribune,"  June  27,  1903. 

"  Penny  Press,"  June  27,  1903. 
"  New  York  Tribune,"  June  29,  1903. 

"  Boston  Herald,"  June  29,  1903. 

"  Springfield  Republican,"  June  29, 1903. 

New  York  "  Evening  Post,"  June  27,  1903. 

"  Hartford  Courant,"  June  29,  1903. 

Business  Card  of  William  Mylchreest  &  Sons. 


MONDAY  EVENING 


INTRODUCTORY  REMARKS 

BY   THE 

KEVEEEND  WILLIAM  VALENTINE  KELLEY 


THAT  Literature  and  Poetry  should  consent  to  stand  together 
and  pay  tribute  in  the  radiant  light  which  now  streams  from 
the  name  and  fame  of  John  "Wesley  occasions  no  surprise.  For 
literature  and  poetry  played  no  small  part  in  all  the  mighty 
movement  of  which  he  was  the  providential  leader.  That  move- 
ment, in  fact,  began  with  literature,  was  born  out  of  a  Book;  and 
a  fit  vignette  on  the  title-page  of  its  history  would  be  the  picture 
of  a  little  circle  of  university  students  at  Oxford,  known  as  the 
Holy  Club,  prayerfully  putting  their  heads  and  hearts  together 
over  the  Greek  New  Testament — the  most  wonderful  piece  of 
literature  in  the  world. 

Macaulay  said  that  "Wesley's  "eloquence  and  logical  acute- 
ness  might  have  made  him  eminent  in  literature." 

It  is  scarcely  too  much  for  us  to  say  that  they  did.  For  he 
filled  no  small  place,  no  mean  place,  in  the  authorship  of  his 
day.  He  was  really  a  voluminous  author,  editing  numerous 
books  and  writing  not  a  few.  As  for  immediate  popular  success 
in  authorship,  he  was  one  of  the  most  extensively  read  and  largely 
remunerated  authors  of  his  time.  How  many  writers  were  there, 
in  all  the  eighteenth  century,  we  wonder,  who  could  make  a  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars  by  their  published  works  as  he  did  ? 

And  the  quality  of  his  literary  product  was  as  high  as  its 
circulation  was  extensive.  Nothing  cheap  or  meretricious  low- 
ered or  marred  the  works  of  this  classically  trained  Oxford 
scholar  and  highly  accomplished  Fellow  of  Lincoln.  The  wide 
popularity  of  his  books  was  no  more  a  discredit  to  the  taste  of 
the  age  than  it  was  a  damage  to  its  morals.  He  had  what 
Bushnell  called  the  first  essential  to  a  good  and  great  style, 
namely,  "  good  and  great  matter."  His  writings  are  couched  in 
what  Edward  FitzGerald  justly  and  felicitously  describes  as 
"pure,  unaffected,  undying  English."  And  he  left  some  nervous 
and  virile  literature  which  is  as  indestructible  as  it  is  undu- 

95 


96  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

plicated.  Not  to  mention  anything  else,  there  is  his  amazing 
and  matchless  "Journal" — as  substantial  and  imperishable  a 
human  document  as  ever  contained  the  record  of  a  great  man's 
life  and  labor;  at  least  as  real,  original,  unique,  momentous 
and  irremovable  as  Newman's  "Apologia,"  or  General  Grant's 
"Memoirs,"  or — but  we  must  beware  of  lowering  our  compari- 
son too  far.  Surely  it  is  not  inappropriate  for  us  to  remark 
here  and  now  at  the  introduction  of  this  evening's  exercises 
that,  from  the  first,  Literature  has  had  intimate  fellowship  with, 
and  a  large  place  in,  the  wonderfully  vital,  expressive,  and  fluent 
life  of  the  Wesleyan  movement. 

As  for  poetry,  it  was,  from  the  beginning,  as  much  at  home  in 
the  sun-lit  air  of  the  Faith  of  our  Fathers  as  a  skylark  is  at  home 
aloft  in  the  morning  blue,  singing  at  Heaven's  gate.  If  such  a 
buoyant  and  victorious  faith  as  this  had  been  forbidden  to  pour 
out  its  tender  and  joyous  passion  in  holy  song,  it  would  have 
pined  away  and  died  of  love  unuttered,  gladness  unexpressed. 
Tell  us,  O  singers  and  judges  of  song,  where,  since  "  the  morning 
stars  sang  together  and  the  sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy,"  was 
there  ever  given,  through  any  pure,  melodious  soul,  poetry  more 
truly  inspired  than  are  the  hymns  of  the  younger  Wesley?  John 
R.  Green,  the  impartial  historian,  after  speaking  of  the  sudden 
illumination  which  the  Evangelical  Movement  shed  through 
England,  says :  "  Charles  Wesley  came  to  add  sweetness  to  this 
great  and  marvellous  light." 

And  though  Charles  is  the  singer  of  Methodism,  John  Wesley, 
rigid  reasoner  though  he  was,  is  by  no  means  an  unpoetic  soul. 
His  corrections  of  his  brother's  exuberant  verses  show  him  to  be 
a  critic  of  sound  judgment  and  good  taste,  while  his  translations 
of  the  great  German  hymns  prove  a  soul  of  delicate  poetic  per- 
ception and  exquisite  sensibility,  as  well  as  a  finished  scholar  and 
linguist. 

And  surely,  in  eminent  degree,  his  was  especially  that  spiritual- 
mindedness,  that  vision  of  things  unseen,  which  is  the  prime  con- 
dition of  all  noble  poetry.  His  also  was  that  fire  in  the  bones, 
that  high  temperature  of  soul,  that  incandescence  of  intellect  and 
heart,  which  naturally  and  easily  flame  out  into  poetry's  lambent 
lines.  It  is  true  that  when  Dr.  E.  H.  Chapin  remarked  upon  "the 
deep  and  steady  rapture  of  Wesley's  heart,"  he  discovered  the  dy- 
namic centre  of  the  great  Wesleyan  movement ;  and  it  is  also 
true  that  from  the  furnace-glow,  which  burned  in  the  hearts  of  the 
Wesleys  and  radiated  through  the  heart  of  England,  came  the 


CALEB  THOMAS  WINCHESTER 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  97 

promise  and  potency  of  infinite  poems  in  letters  and  life,  in 
metres  of  earth  and  metres  of  heaven. 

And  now,  as  in  the  past,  so  here  to-night,  Literature  and  Poetry 
march  together  in  the  ranks  of  that  mighty  moral  movement 
which  must  forever  feel  fresh  courage  and  gather  new  inspiration 
whenever  it  takes  a  look  at  its  Leader,  whose  bright  example, 
swaying  forward,  still  burns  on  at  the  front.  It  is  meet  and 
right,  as  it  is  our  happiness,  that  a  master  of  literature  and  a  true 
poet,  each  having  in  the  veins  of  his  soul  some  impulsive  ances- 
tral strain  from  that  apostolic  ministry  which  runs  down  to  our 
generation  from  Ep worth  rectory  and  the  shelter  of  Susanna 
Wesley's  arms,  should  join  their  voices  in  the  tributes  of  this 
hour. 


ADDRESS 

BY  PEOFESSOE  CALEB  THOMAS  WINCHESTEE 

* 
3!of)n  f®0£iep,  tlje  Sr^an 

AT  four  o'clock  on  the  afternoon  of  Monday,  the  2d  of  April, 
-£j^-  1739,  in  a  plot  of  open  ground  just  outside  the  city  of  Bristol, 
a  preacher  stood  up  to  speak  to  an  audience  of  three  thousand  per- 
sons crowding  about  him  to  listen.  For  six  weeks  past  this 
audience  has  been  hearing,  in  this  place  and  in  other  places  in  the 
open  air,  the  most  marvellously  eloquent  preacher  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  George  Whiten1  eld;  but  the  preacher  of  this  afternoon 
they  have  never  heard  before.  And  he  has  never  preached  "in 
the  fields"  before,  and  does  it  now  with  the  utmost  reluctance, 
feeling  that  it  is  a  violation  of  all  proprieties,  and  almost  doubt- 
ing—  as  he  said  afterward — whether  it  were  not  a  sin  to  save  a 
soul,  except  it  can  be  done  in  a  church.  No  picture  of  the  preacher 
of  that  afternoon,  and  no  account  of  what  he  said  was  preserved 
by  any  of  the  audience; l  they  were  not  the  kind  of  people  who 

l  That  careful  student  of  Methodist  his-  Webb  declares  that  he  cannot  "  relate  any 

tory,  Rev.  W.  H.  Meredith,  reminds   me  part  of  the  sermon,  being  much  con  fused  in 

that  one  of  Wesley's  hearers,  a  certain  my  mind,  and  filled  with  astonishment  at 

William  Webb,  in  an  account  of  his  expe-  the  minister,"  Heave  this  statement  stand- 

rience  given  in  the  "  Methodist  Magazine  "  ing  as  substantially  correct, 
for  1807,  mentions  this  sermon.     But  as  C.  T.  W. 

7 


98  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

keep  journals  and  write  letters — for  the  very  good  reason  that 
most  of  them  were  grimy  colliers  who  could  not  read  or  write  at 
all.  But  we  know  the  preacher  was  a  little  man,  short  of  stature 
and  slight  of  figure;  his  face,  thin  and  sharply  cut,  is  the 
thoughtful  face  of  a  scholar,  for  he  is  thirty-six  years  old,  and 
until  about  a  year  ago  he  has  lived  the  cloistered,  almost  ascetic, 
life  of  a  Fellow  of  Lincoln  College;  his  dark  hair,  in  defiance  of 
the  fashion  of  that  bewigged  age,  falls  down  almost  upon  his 
shoulders  with  just  a  suspicion  of  a  curl;  his  faultless  cassock  and 
spotless  linen,  his  black  hose  and  silver  shoe-buckles,  betray  an 
almost  finical  neatness  and  precision  in  his  attire;  yet  he  has  a 
certain  air  of  command,  and  by  that  steadfast  level  look  in  his 
eye,  and  the  quiet,  firm  tone  of  his  voice,  you  know  before  he  has 
spoken  a  dozen  sentences  that  this  is  one  of  the  leaders  of  men. 
He  announces  as  his  text  those  words,  which,  as  we  think  of  him 
now,  it  hardly  seems  irreverent  to  apply  to  this  servant  of  the 
Master  who  spoke  them  before :  "  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon 
me,  because  he  hath  anointed  me  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  the 
poor."  There  is  no  rhetoric  in  his  sermon,  no  slightest  attempt 
at  oratorical  effect,  only  a  clear,  simple  utterance  thrilling  with 
intense,  but  restrained,  emotion.  What  was  the  immediate  result 
of  that  afternoon's  sermon  we  do  not  know;  but  we  know  that  in 
the  next  month  John  Wesley  has  preached  again  and  again  under 
the  open  sky  till  his  audiences  through  that  month,  in  and  near 
Bristol,  aggregate  forty  thousand  persons.  His  great  work  has 
begun. 

Fifty-one  years  after  this  day,  one  evening  in  the  year  1790, 
a  young  Englishman — hardly  more  than  a  boy,  for  he  was  only 
sixteen,  and  an  articled  clerk  in  an  attorney's  office  of  Col- 
chester— records  that  he  went  to  hear  "that  veteran  in  the  ser- 
vice of  God,"  John  Wesley.  The  preacher  stood  in  a  wide  pulpit, 
on  either  side  of  him  a  minister,  and  the  two  held  him  up.  His 
voice  was  hardly  audible.  "  I  could  not  make  out  the  text,"  says 
the  young  hearer,  "and  the  sermon  was  largely  pantomime,  but 
it  went  to  the  heart."  This  young  attorney's  clerk,  Henry  Crabbe 
Robinson,  as  he  grew  to  manhood  came  to  know  and  hear  most 
of  the  great  men  of  two  generations  in  England;  but  he  used  to 
say  that  never  in  all  his  later  life  had  he  seen  anything  com- 
parable to  the  picture  of  this  aged  preacher  with  the  reverend 
countenance,  the  long  white  locks,  and  the  gentle  voice,  sur- 
rounded by  a  vast  audience  of  admiring  and  loving  friends,  eager 
to  catch  some  words  from  his  lips  so  soon  to  be  silent.  Six 
months  later  and  the  preacher  was  gone. 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  99 

The  half  century  between  these  two  sermons,  this  man,  John 
Wesley,  has  filled  with  a  work  such  as  no  other  Englishman  of 
that  century  can  begin  to  parallel.  The  record  of  it,  merely  as 
labor  of  body  and  mind,  is  astounding.  In  those  days  of  slow 
and  toilsome  travelling  he  has  travelled  over  250,000  miles — the 
equivalent  of  ten  times  round  the  globe — all  of  it,  of  course,  on 
horseback  or  by  coach,  sometimes  covering  from  eighty  to  ninety 
miles  on  horseback  in  a  single  day,  visiting  remote  fishing  villages 
in  Cornwall  or  mining  towns  in  Yorkshire  that  the  traveller  to-day 
rarely  finds.  No  Englishman  knew  the  roads  and  bridle  paths 
of  his  island  from  one  end  of  it  to  the  other  half  so  well  as  he. 
Throughout  all  that  fifty  years,  summer  and  winter,  he  has  risen 
at  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  has  usually  preached  at  five, 
often  three  or  four  times  more  in  the  same  day.  In  the  fifty  years 
he  estimated  he  had  preached  about  thirty-five  thousand  times,  or 
some  twice  a  day  for  the  whole  half  century.  Nor  is  this  all.  This 
man  is  a  student.  Few  men  of  his  time  have  read  more  than  he, 
albeit  his  reading  has  been  mostly  done  on  horseback.  He  has 
written,  too,  tracts,  pamphlets,  books,  mostly  religious  of  course, 
yet  including  treatises,  big  or  little,  on  language,  rhetoric,  history, 
medicine,  physics,  so  that  his  collected  works  fill  thirty  goodly 
volumes.  More  than  all  that,  while  his  societies  of  plain  folk,  who 
purpose  to  fear  God  and  work  righteousness,  have  multiplied  till 
they  are  found  in  almost  every  town  in  England  and  scattered 
over  Scotland,  Ireland,  and  America,  this  man  has  carried  in  his 
mind  and  on  his  heart  the  care  and  governance  of  them  all;  has 
devised  rules  for  their  discipline  and  guidance;  slowly  and  half 
unconsciously  (but  with  a  genius  for  government,  as  Macaulay 
once  said,  not  inferior  to  that  of  Richelieu)  has  perfected  a  won- 
derful organization  to  solidify  and  perpetuate  his  work;  has 
really  founded  a  church.  And  his  influence  has  been  wider  even 
than  that.  He  has  quickened  the  religious  life  of  a  nation ;  he 
has  almost  eradicated  certain  forms  of  vice,  as  the  smuggling  on 
the  Cornish  coast;  in  that  England  of  Walpole  and  Rigby  he  has 
trained  up  a  class — and  almost  the  only  class — of  absolutely  in- 
corruptible voters.  Large  results  like  these  come,  of  course,  from  a 
combination  of  causes,  and  are  not  to  be  ascribed  exclusively  to 
any  individual;  yet  to  John  Wesley,  far  more  than  to  any  other 
one  man  of  his  century,  is  it  due  that  the  standard  of  public 
sobriety  and  morals  was  raised  all  over  England,  and  a  respect 
for  the  demands  and  observances  of  religion  widely  diffused 
among  the  great  mass  of  the  common  people,  upon  whom,  in  the 
last  resort,  depend  the  health  and  safety  of  the  modern  state. 


100  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

Of  this  great  work  I  am  not  to  speak  to-night.  Its  more  dis- 
tinctively religious  and  ecclesiastical  phases  were  ably  presented 
to  us  last  evening;  of  its  wider  historical  significance  we  shall 
hear  from  the  eminent  speaker  of  to-morrow  evening.  Mine  is 
the  humbler  bask  to  consider  some  of  the  characteristics  of  John 
Wesley  the  Man.  What  were  his  tastes,  his  likes  and  dislikes, 
the  ruling  motives  of  his  life?  How  shall  we  picture  him  in  the 
narrower  relations  of  society  and  of  friendship,  in  his  habit  as  he 
lived  ?  To  answer  such  questions  with  reference  to  a  great  man 
is  not  always  easy.  For  every  leader  of  a  great  movement  in  so- 
ciety, church,  or  state  is  liable  to  be  forgotten  in  the  fame  of  his 
work.  The  man  is  lost  in  the  hero  or  the  saint.  Especially  if  he 
has,  as  Wesley  did,  imposed  upon  the  movement  or  the  insti- 
tution he  originated  not  only  his  own  name,  but  his  own 
discipline,  his  own  system  of  doctrine,  his  own  purpose  and 
methods,  he  is  almost  sure  to  become  a  kind  of  eponymous,  half- 
mythical  personage,  remembered  chiefly  as  the  embodiment  of  his 
system.  John  Wesley  was  the  great  founder  of  Methodism ;  yes, 
but  was  he  a  good  fellow,  a  genial  man  ?  What  manner  of  man 
was  he  to  talk  with,  work  with,  live  with  ? 

And  it  must  be  admitted  that  there  are  some  things  that  make 
this  sense  of  personal  acquaintance  specially  difficult  in  the  case 
of  Wesley.  When  we  would  know  a  man  intimately,  we  naturally 
and  justly  try  to  see  him  not  merely  in  his  public  and  official 
attitude,  but  in  his  home,  in  his  domestic  relations,  and  in  those 
hours  of  relaxation  when  the  natural  bent  of  his  temper  asserts 
itself.  But  John  Wesley  had  no  home;  and  he  had  no  hours 
of  relaxation.  Rooms  were  set  apart  for  his  use  in  the  Foundry 
and  afterward  in  the  City  Road  Chapel  Buildings — the  London 
headquarters  of  Methodism ;  but  he  seldom  occupied  them  more 
than  two  or  three  days  at  a  time.  He  never  had  any  domestic 
life.  He  was  married, —  after  two  unsuccessful  attempts, — much 
to  his  misfortune ;  but  he  stipulated  that  he  should  not  be  ex- 
pected to  journey  a  mile  the  less  after  marriage  than  before.  In 
fact,  he  was  probably  glad  to  travel  more.  He  is  always  going 
somewhere  —  at  the  beginning  of  the  month  in  Cornwall,  at  the 
end  of  it  in  Yorkshire.  It  seems  a  little  difficult  to  get  upon 
intimate  terms  with  a  man  who  has  always  preached  two  hours 
ago  and  is  riding  fifteen  or  twenty  miles  to  preach  again  to- 
night. Sam  Johnson,  who  appreciated  and  admired  Wesley, 
said  to  Boswell  once,  "Mr.  Wesley's  conversation  is  very  good, 
Sir,  but  he  is  never  at  leisure.  He  always  has  to  go  at  a  certain 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  101 

hour;  which  is  very  disagreeable  to  one  who  loves  to  fold  his 
legs  and  have  his  talk  out,  as  I  do."  And  Johnson  was  right  — 
as  usual.  Wesley  was  never  known  to  be  in  a  hurry,  for  he  was 
the  most  methodical  of  men — a  Methodist  from  his  cradle.  He 
always  had  time,  therefore,  for  his  work ;  but  he  never  had  time 
for  anything  else.  When  a  young  man  in  college,  he  wrote  to 
his  father,  "  Leisure  and  I  have  parted  company."  They  never 
met  again.  He  would  never  unbend  his  mind  in  an  hour  of 
genial  relaxation.  In  his  scheme  of  life  there  was  no  place  for 
such  hours.  When  he  founded  a  boys'  school  at  Kings  wood,  his 
first  rule  was  that  the  boys  should  have  no  time  at  all  allowed 
for  play.  For  himself,  he  did  not  believe,  with  Wordsworth, 
that  we 

Can  feed  these  minds  of  ours 
In  a  wise  passiveness. 

He  never  ruminates,  never  holds  his  mind  open  quietly,  or  waits 
for  a  mood.  His  whole  life  is  a  noble  monotony  of  labor.  The 
result  is,  we  see  the  man  only  in  activity,  and  see,  therefore, 
only  the  public  and  official  sides  of  his  character.  Even  his 
"  Journal,"  which  is,  on  the  whole,  one  of  the  three  or  four  most 
interesting  books  of  the  eighteenth  century,  is  for  the  most  part 
a  record  of  fact  and  not  of  reflection,  the  story  of  his  outward 
life  and  labor.  These  are,  I  take  it,  the  principal  reasons  why 
the  life  of  Wesley,  as  some  one  has  said,  is  the  despair  of  the 
biographer;  they  explain  and  in  part  excuse  the  fact  that  the 
standard  biography  of  John  Wesley  is  a  monument  of  dullness. 
It  must  be  admitted,  further,  that  the  character  of  Wesley, 
after  you  have  become  acquainted  with  it,  presents  some  features 
more  admirable  than  picturesque.  For  example,  he  was  the  most 
self-possessed  of  men.  I  have  said  he  never  hurried ;  but  he 
never  worried,  either.  He  was  never  anxious.  He  had  no  moods ; 
he  was  never  discouraged,  never  elated.  He  never  let  himself 
go.  He  was  not  the  man  to  fling  his  inkstand  at  the  devil.  On 
his  eighty-fifth  birthday  he  writes  in  his  "Journal"  that  he  has 
never  lost  a  night's  sleep,  sick  or  well,  on  land  or  sea,  since  he 
was  born;  though  here  his  memory  slipped  slightly, — as  was 
natural  at  eighty-five, —  for  fifteen  years  before  he  records  that, 
while  crossing  the  Irish  Channel,  he  has  lain  awake  all  night,  for 
the  first  and  only  time  in  his  life.  The  correct  record  seems  to 
be,  one  night  in  eighty-five  years.  Now,  such  an  equable  temper 
is  certainly  a  gift  to  be  thankful  for  if  you  have  it,  and  to  be 
7* 


102  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

coveted  if  you  have  it  not;   but  it  as  certainly  does  not  tend 
to  give  that  light  and  shade  which  make  a  man's  story  pictur- 


Then,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  Wesley  had  very  little  gift  of  hu- 
mor; which  is  a  serious  privation  in  our  dull-colored  world. 
He  was  cheerful  —  that  came  of  his  temperament ;  and  he  had  a 
very  pretty  wit,  usually  with  a  satiric  edge  and  drawn  out  only 
in  some  mood  of  controversy.  You  expect  wit  from  every  man  of 
any  eminence  in  the  eighteenth  century.  But  of  that  sympathetic 
enjoyment  of  all  the  manifold  contrasts  and  incongruities  of  life 
which  we  call  humor,  I  think  Wesley  had  very  little.  That  usu- 
ally implies  a  habit  of  leisurely  observation,  which,  as  I  have 
said,  was  foreign  to  his  temperament.  It  is  a  pity;  for  think 
what  an  opportunity  there  was  for  the  exercise  of  that  fortunate 
gift.  The  great  middle  class  of  English  people,  the  class  full  of 
the  most  varied,  racy,  humorous  life,  Wesley  knew,  or  might  have 
known,  better  than  all  the  novelists  of  the  century  put  together. 
He  lived  with  them  for  fifty  years,  was  their  friend,  adviser, 
father  confessor.  But  you  would  never  guess  that  he  saw  the 
humors  of  their  life.  There  were  thousands  of  Mrs.  Poysers 
among  these  early  Methodists;  there  must  have  been  or  the 
movement  wouldn't  have  been  so  healthy;  but  Wesley  never 
met  them.  I  spoke  just  now  of  the  "Journal"  as  one  of  the 
interesting  books  of  the  century ;  but  if  Wesley  could  have  put 
into  it  the  humor  of  that  genial  old  hero,  his  father,  rector  of 
Epworth,  the  "Journal"  might  have  been,  like  Boswell's  "John- 
son," a  book  that  no  intelligent  man  could  leave  unread.  But 
John  Wesley  was  the  child  of  his  mother ;  and  humor,  I  think, 
was  not  among  the  many  gifts  the  great  Susanna  Wesley  could 
bequeath  to  her  son. 

As  it  is,  almost  the  only  humorous  pages  of  the  "Journal"  are 
those  of  which  Wesley  himself  had  no  suspicion.  For  instance,  he 
set  down  gravely  these  statements  in  the  same  paragraph:  "Satur- 
day, Feb.  2.  Having  received  a  full  answer  from  Mr.  P.,  I  was 
clearly  resolved  that  I  ought  to  marry.  For  many  years  I  re- 
mained single  because  I  believed  I  could  be  more  useful  in  a 
single  than  in  a  married  state.  I  now  as  fully  believed  that  in 
my  present  circumstances  I  might  be  more  useful  in  a  married 
state ;  into  which  I  entered  a  few  days  after.  Wed.  Feb.  6. 1  met 
the  single  men,  and  showed  them  on  how  many  accounts  it  was 
good  for  those  who  had  received  that  gift  from  God  to  remain 
single  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven's  sake." 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  103 

I  don't  suppose  Wesley  ever  suspected  any  one  might  smile  on 
reading  that  paragraph.  On  one  occasion,  when  he  was  riding 
with  a  number  of  his  friends  from  one  preaching  place  to  another, 
the  party  was  assailed  by  a  mob,  who  pelted  the  carriage  with 
stones;  but  says  Wesley,  gravely,  "a  very  large  gentlewoman  sat 
in  my  lap  and  screened  me,  so  that  nothing  came  near  me." 
What  special  providence  screened  the  large  gentlewoman  he 
doesn't  say.  First  and  last,  there  are  a  good  many  passages  like 
these,  in  which,  if  the  humor  is  intentional,  it  certainly  is  "extra 
dry." 

Yet  he  must  be  strangely  prejudiced  or  strangely  dull  who  finds 
John  Wesley  an  uninteresting  man.  If  the  biographies  are  rather 
lifeless,  one  can  leave  them  alone,  and,  turning  to  the  "Journal" 
and  the  "  Letters,"  frame  from  them  a  picture  of  the  man  as  he 
was.  If  I  were  to  characterize  this  man  as  I  understand  him,  I 
should  say,  first  of  all,  that  John  Wesley  was  a  gentleman.  He 
made  that  impression  upon  every  one :  upon  men  of  the  world  as 
well  as  upon  men  of  religion ;  upon  people  of  the  highest  rank  and 
people  of  the  lowest.  When  Beau  Nash,  the  radiant  dandy  who 
assumed  for  a  time  to  govern  the  world  of  fashion,  vexed  to  find 
that  some  of  his  great  folk  in  Bath  were  going  with  all  the  rest 
of  the  world  to  hear  the  field  preacher,  interrupted  and  attempted 
to  forbid  Wesley's  preaching,  he  found  himself  no  match  for  the 
dignified  courtesy  of  the  quiet  preacher.  The  Beau  lost  his  head 
after  a  sentence  or  two  and  began  to  scold.  "Your  preaching 
frightens  people  out  of  their  wits."  "  Sir,  did  you  ever  hear  me 
preach?"  "No."  "How  then  can  you  judge  of  what  you  have 
never  heard?"  "Sir,  by  common  report."  "But  common  report 
is  not  enough;  give  me  leave  to  ask  you,  sir,  is  not  your  name 
Nash?"  "My  name  is  Nash."  "Sir,  I  dare  not  judge  you  by 
common  report;  I  think  it  is  not  enough  to  judge  by ! "  The  dandy 
retired,  still  further  discomfited,  as  he  went,  by  an  old  woman  in 
the  crowd  who  called  out:  "You  take  care  of  your  body,  Mr. 
Nash,  and  we  take  care  of  our  souls." 

Some  years  later  that  veneered  old  pagan,  the  typical  Epicurean 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  Horace  Walpole,  heard  Wesley  at 
Bath  after  the  Society  had  got  to  itself  a  chapel  and  a  choir  that 
sang  the  Methodist  hymns,  Walpole  owned,  very  prettily.  Wal- 
pole, of  course,  did  not  think  very  highly  of  the  sermon  or  of  the 
audience;  but  he  was  evidently  impressed  by  the  appearance  and 
bearing  of  the  preacher.  The  truth  is,  Wesley  had  by  birth  the 
instincts  of  a  gentleman.  His  father  and  grandfather  and  great- 


104  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

grandfather  were  all  clergymen  of  the  Church  of  England,  all 
Oxford  men,  men  who  carried  into  whatever  narrow  or  adverse 
circumstance  of  life  clean  tastes  and  gentle  manners.  In  the 
outer,  less  important  matters  of  attire  and  personal  appear- 
ance Wesley  himself  was  the  most  precise  of  mortals.  The  very 
plainness  of  his  dress  was  a  proof  not  of  carelessness  but  of 
austerity  of  taste.  In  the  stories  of  his  encounters  with  mobs,  as 
he  tells  them  in  the  "Journal,"  I  have  noticed  that  no  less  than 
ten  times  he  mentions,  as  if  it  were  a  physical  injury,  that  some 
dirt  was  thrown  upon  his  coat  or  hat.  The  one  proverb  of  his 
that  everybody  knows  is  "Cleanliness  is  next  to  godliness." 

It  is  true  that  he  had  an  aversion  for  what  called  itself  the 
fashionable  society  of  his  time,  for  he  thought  it  vapid  and 
essentially  vulgar.  And  it  was.  Never  before,  perhaps  never 
since,  has  English  society  been  more  unintelligent,  more  given  to 
loud  ostentation,  than  in  the  second  third  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury— the  age  of  George  II.  and  Queen  Caroline  and  Prince  Fred 
and  Robert  Walpole  and  Bubb  Dodington;  the  age  of  gaming, 
and  raffling-shops  and  chocolate-houses;  of  low  morals  and  bad 
taste.  Nor  did  Wesley  think  much  better  of  this  society  when 
one  or  two  of  its  fine  ladies,  turning  devout,  adopted  Mr.  White- 
field  and  made  Methodism  for  a  little  time  the  fad  of  the  hour. 
It  is  easy  to  see  that  he  sometimes  had  a  little  difficulty  in  keep- 
ing his  patience  at  Whitefield's  unctuous  compliments  to  the 
"  elect  ladies."  The  truth  is,  Whitefield  could  never  quite  forget 
the  marvellous  providence  that  had  taken  him  from  the  tap-room 
of  his  mother's  inn  to  be  a  minister  of  grace  to  duchesses.  But 
Wesley  had  that  best  evidence  of  real  breeding — entire  uncon- 
sciousness of  social  differences.  In  whatsoever  society,  he  took 
himself  for  granted. 

But  Wesley  is  not  to  be  thought  of  as  insensible  to  the  charm 
of  intelligent  and  refined  society.  It  was  not  from  natural  in- 
clination that  he  turned  away  from  such  society  and  gave  his  life 
largely  to  other  classes  of  people.  His  native  temperament  was 
dignified,  scholarly,  exclusive.  Once,  and  once  only,  in  his  life 
did  he  find  himself  placed  in  surroundings  altogether  congenial; 
that  was  while  he  was  in  residence  as  Fellow  at  Lincoln  College 
in  Oxford.  The  companionship  of  a  small  number  of  selected 
friends,  the  invitation  to  the  life  of  calm  study  and  reflection,  the 
grave  beauty  of  the  storied  academic  town — they  all  combined 
to  win  his  heart.  When  his  aged  father  asked  him  to  leave  this 
cloistered  life,  come  home  to  the  rudeness  of  a  wild  northern 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  105 

parish,  and  take  the  living  of  Epworth,  it  is  small  wonder  that 
John  Wesley  found  twenty-six  different  reasons  why  he  should 
stay  where  he  was.  I  think  the  most  of  them  were  really  selfish 
reasons;  for  Wesley  was  not  yet  ready  to  deny  himself  and  take 
up  his  cross — he  was  yet  in  the  ascetic  or  monastic  stage  of  his 
religious  life:  but  they  were  very  natural  reasons.  Had  he  fol- 
lowed his  own  preferences  he  would  never  have  left  Oxford  at 
all.  Those  days  were  bright  in  memory  all  his  life;  and  now  and 
then  he  breaks  out  in  some  irrepressible  longing  to  have  them  back 
again.  At  the  close  of  a  specially  toilsome  year  he  writes  to  his 
brother  Charles:  "I  often  cry  out,  Redde  me  vitae  priori — let  me 
be  again  an  Oxford  Methodist."  I  am  persuaded  we  do  not  justly 
estimate  the  nobility  of  Wesley's  work,  until  we  realize  how  much 
sacrifice  of  all  that  was  most  congenial  it  must  have  cost  him. 
Some  of  the  incidental  records  in  the  "Journal"  seem  to  me  to 
have  a  kind  of  half -pathetic  suggestiveness:  for  example,  when 
in  his  eighty-first  year  he  made  a  brief  trip  to  Holland, — that  he 
enjoyed  with  all  the  eager  curiosity  of  a  boy, — he  notes  in  his 
"Journal,"  two  or  three  times,  that  all  the  people  he  meets  are 
delightfully  refined  and  courteous;  that  one  of  his  hosts  speaks 
Latin  very  correctly,  and  "is  of  a  most  easy  aud  affable  bearing"; 
that  his  hostess  another  day  receives  him  "with  that  easy  open- 
ness and  affability  which,"  he  says,  "is  almost  peculiar  to  Chris- 
tians and  persons  of  quality." 

Wesley's  work  was  mostly  done  with  and  for  the  great  English 
middle  class,  especially  in  towns ;  and  that  because  he  saw,  with 
the  sure  instinct  of  the  reformer,  that  here  was  a  great  section  of 
society,  rapidly  increasing  in  numbers  and  influence,  who  were 
largely  unchurched,  and  to  whom  the  Church  of  England,  through 
its  regular  forms  of  worship  and  service,  could  not  —  or  at  all 
events  did  not  —  minister.  But  he  carried  into  his  work  with 
these  people  the  tastes  and  instincts  of  the  gentleman.  He  had 
in  very  eminent  degree  the  two  qualities  that,  by  common  con- 
sent, mark  the  gentleman,  wherever  he  may  be — courtesy  and 
courage.  His  courtesy  was  of  the  finest  sort,  which  I  take  to  be 
democratic.  His  never  thought  it  necessary  to  vulgarize  his 
message  to  any  audience  whatsoever,  or  to  make  any  concessions 
to  coarseness.  On  the  other  hand,  he  never  held  himself  above 
his  hearers,  or  took  any  superior  or  distant  air.  He  talked  with 
a  mechanic  or  tradesman  as  he  talked  with  a  lord.  There  was  a 
quiet  dignity  in  his  manner  that  commanded  respect  and  imita- 
tion. When,  one  afternoon,  he  was  surrounded  by  a  boisterous 


106  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

crowd  in  Ratcliffe  Square,  London,  after  an  opening  word  or  two 
he  said,  "  Friends,  let  every  man  do  as  he  pleases ;  but  it  is  my 
manner  when  I  speak  of  the  things  of  God,  or  another  does,  to 
uncover  my  head" —  which  he  did  ;  and  instantly  the  whole  crowd 
followed  his  example.  "Then,"  says  Wesley,  "I  exhorted  them 
to  repent  and  believe  the  Gospel."  One  of  his  preachers  noticed 
that  he  was  always  careful  to  take  off  his  hat  whenever  poor 
people  thanked  him  for  anything.  The  man  who  exerted  the 
greatest  influence  upon  English  manners  at  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  I  say,  was  not  my  Lord  Chesterfield,  or  any  of 
his  ilk ;  it  was  John  Wesley. 

As  for  courage,  John  Wesley  never  knew  what  fear  meant. 
Danger  could  not  even  quicken  his  pulse.  He  would  have  made 
the  coolest  of  officers  in  action.  Before  the  angriest  mob  the 
slight  little  man  never  lost  his  perfect  self-possession,  even  his 
dignified  courtesy.  He  says  in  the  "Journal"  simply  that  he 
has  found  it  best  always  to  face  a  mob.  Whenever  possible,  he 
tried  to  single  out  the  leaders  and  address  them  personally.  At 
St.  Ives,  in  Cornwall,  for  example,  as  he  was  preaching  in  the 
evening,  the  mob  of  the  town  broke  into  the  room,  roaring  and 
striking  as  if  possessed  with  devils.  "  I  would  fain  have  per- 
suaded our  people  to  stand  still,"  says  Wesley,  "  but  the  zeal  of 
some  and  the  fear  of  others  had  no  ears.  So  that,  finding  the  up- 
roar increase,  I  went  into  the  midst  and  brought  the  leader  of  the 
mob  with  me  up  to  the  desk.  I  received  but  one  blow  on  the  side 
of  the  head ;  after  which  we  reasoned  the  case,  till  he  grew  milder 
and  milder,  and  at  length  undertook  to  quiet  his  companions." 
A  little  later,  in  Falmouth,  an  angry  mob  assailed  the  house 
where  he  was  staying,  shouting,  "Bring  out  the  Canorum! 
Bring  out  the  Canorum!"  and  finding  the  door  locked  pro- 
ceeded to  break  it  open.  As  the  door  fell  in,  Wesley  stepped  out 
and  calmly  said,  "Good  evening.  Here  I  am.  Which  of  you 
has  anything  to  say  to  me  ?  To  which  of  you  have  I  done  any 
wrong?  To  you?  To  you?  To  you?"  And  so  continuing  speak- 
ing as  he  stepped  forward,  he  reached  the  middle  of  the  street,  and 
then,  addressing  the  crowd,  said,  "Neighbors,  do  you  wish  to  hear 
me  speak?"  "  Yes,  yes !  "  the  crowd  yelled,  "Let  him  speak ;  he 
shall  speak;  nobody  shall  hinder  him! "  And  then  he  spoke.  At 
Plymouth,  after  talking  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  and  finding  the 
violence  of  the  rabble  increasing,  he  walked  down  into  the  thick- 
est of  them  and  took  the  captain  courteously  by  the  hand.  The 
fellow  immediately  said :  "  Sir,  I  will  see  you  safe  home.  No  man 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  107 

shall  touch  you.  Gentlemen,  stand  back ;  I  will  knock  down  the 
first  man  that  touches  him."  "  And  so,"  says  Wesley,  "  he  walked 
to  my  lodgings  and  we  parted  in  much  love."  But  the  crowd  had 
followed  too,  and  Wesley  stayed  in  the  street  a  half-hour  and 
talked  with  them  till  they  went  away,  he  says,  in  high  good 
humor.  A  British  mob  usually  has  respect  for  a  gentleman,  and 
it  always  admires  pluck ;  in  such  encounters  Wesley  was  almost 
uniformly  master  of  the  situation.  He  never  resisted,  of  course, 
or  lifted  a  hand  in  his  own  defence;  but  not  infrequently,  as  in 
the  instances  just  mentioned,  his  coolness  won  the  admiration  of 
the  leaders  of  the  mob,  who  pronounced  him  "game"  and 
declared  themselves  ready  to  challenge  all  comers  in  his  behalf. 
In  a  turbulent  meeting  in  London,  a  big  Thames  bargeman 
lifted  up  his  brawny  front,  and  squaring  himself  to  the  audience 
called  out,  "  What  that  man  says  is  right ;  I  say  so,  and  not  a 
man  here  shall  dare  to  say  otherwise." 

Every  reader  of  the  "  Journal "  remembers  the  mobs  of  the  ad- 
joining  Staffordshire  towns  of  Weduesbury  and  Walsal.  Early 
in  the  evening  Wesley,  with  his  usual  nerve  and  tact,  had  suc- 
ceeded in  conciliating  the  leaders  of  the  Wednesbury  mob  that 
threatened  his  life,  and  then  all  its  members,  till  they  professed 
themselves  his  friends  and  ready  to  shed  their  blood  in  his 
defence.  Not  wishing,  however,  to  give  up  their  night's  sport 
altogether,  they  were  escorting  Wesley  to  a  magistrate  in  Walsal, 
when  they  met  a  larger  mob  approaching  from  that  town,  and 
at  once  proceeded  to  shed  some  blood  in  defence  of  their  prisoner. 
They  were  overpowered,  however,  and  Wesley  found  himself  in 
the  hands  of  a  more  violent  rabble,  who  dragged  him  through 
the  streets  of  Walsal,  frightening  the  magistrates  who  should 
have  defended  him,  and  howling,  " Hang  him !  Kill  him! "  But 
again  Wesley  got  leave  to  speak  before  they  proceed  to  extremi- 
ties. As  he  paused,  after  speaking  a  few  moments,  the  leader  of 
the  mob,  a  burly  prize-fighter,  suddenly  stepping  out  from  the 
howling,  angry  crowd,  said  to  Mr.  Wesley:  "Sir,  keep  close  to 
me;  no  man  shall  harm  a  hair  of  your  head.  I  will  spend  my 
life  for  you."  And  so,  under  this  protection,  forced  through  the 
shouting  crowd,  and  carried  on  the  shoulders  of  his  champion 
across  a  stream  to  avoid  a  threatening  rabble  on  the  bridge, 
Wesley  reached  his  lodgings  in  safety,  having  lost  "  a  little  skin 
from  the  back  of  my  hand,  and  one  flap  of  my  waistcoat  torn 
off."  The  big  prize-fighter,  five  days  later,  was  received  into  the 
Society,  and  was  a  stout  and  exemplary  Methodist  for  fifty  years. 


108  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

But  I  find  proof  of  a  higher  sort  of  courage  than  this  in 
the  calmness  with  which  Wesley  bore  the  attacks  upon  his 
character  and  work.  Naturally  conservative  and  order-loving, 
he  was  accused  of  upsetting  all  reverend  traditions  and  becoming 
usages;  clear-headed,  logical,  hating  enthusiasm,  he  was  accused 
of  spreading  an  irrational  frenzy  over  the  country  and  turning 
the  heads  of  the  vulgar ;  the  most  frugal  and  the  most  generous 
of  men,  having  no  income  through  all  the  earlier  years  of  his 
work  but  his  allowance  as  Fellow  of  Lincoln  College,  and  giving 
away  most  of  that,  he  was  accused  of  preaching  the  Gospel 
for  gain,  and  grasping  the  scanty  contributions  of  the  poor; 
always  loyal  to  his  king  and  his  church,  he  was  accused  of  being 
a  Jesuit,  a  Papist  in  disguise,  and  probably  an  emissary  of  the 
Pretender.  And  these  accusations  came  not  from  enemies  in 
the  contemptuous  world  of  fashion  and  licentiousness:  they  came 
from  those  who  should  have  been  his  helpers  and  allies,  and  the 
harshest  of  all  came  from  bishops  of  his  own  church.  To  have 
remained  altogether  silent  under  such  charges  would  have  been  a 
proof,  not  of  courage,  but  of  cowardice ;  but  I  hold  it  to  be  a 
proof  of  the  truest  courage,  the  courage  of  a  gentleman,  that 
Wesley,  though  he  was  a  master  of  controversy  and  had  a  native 
inclination  to  satire,  in  his  replies  to  his  accusers  never  lost  his 
temper,  never  would  be  goaded  into  any  discourtesy  or  bitter- 
ness, never  belied  the  title  of  his  famous  reply,  "A  Calm 
Address  to  Men  of  Reason  and  Religion."  Once  only,  so  far 
as  I  can  recall,  when  Lavington,  Bishop  of  Exeter,  assailed  him 
with  reckless  slander,  did  Wesley  allow  himself  to  suggest,  with 
some  acerbity,  that  the  bishop  ought  to  learn  a  little  English 
grammar  and  a  little  heathen  honesty.  But  twenty  years  after- 
ward I  find  this  entry  in  the  "  Journal" :  "  I  was  well  pleased  to- 
day to  partake  of  the  sacrament  with  my  old  opponent  Bishop 
Lavington.  O  may  we  sit  down  together  in  the  kingdom  of 
our  Father." 

But.  further  —  if  I  may  divide  my  talk  after  the  fashion  of  the 
preachers  —  I  should  say,  in  the  second  place,  that  Wesley  was  a 
man  of  remarkable  mental  endowment.  I  should  call  him  a 
scholar.  By  which  I  do  not  mean,  of  course,  a  scholar  in  the 
modern,  technical  sense ;  he  was  not  a  man  of  profound  learning, 
or  of  original  research  in  any  department  of  knowledge.  I  mean, 
rather,  that  he  was  what  we  may  justly  call  a  man  of  scholarly 
tastes,  of  open  and  active  mind;  a  man  of  broad  outlook  and 
genuine  culture.  He  could  stand  Macaulay's  test  of  a  scholar  — 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  109 

he  could  "  read  Plato  with  his  feet  on  the  fender."  While  his 
chief  concern  was  given,  as  it  ought  to  have  been,  to  his  distinc- 
tively religious  work,  it  is  easy  to  see  from  the  "  Journal"  how  keen 
was  his  interest  in  all  things  of  the  intellect  and  the  imagination; 
not  only  in  theology  and  philosophy,  but  in  history,  poetry,  music, 
art.  To  use  one  of  Matthew  Arnold's  pet  phrases,  he  wanted  to 
know  the  best  that  has  been  thought  and  done  in  the  world.  He 
was  a  tireless  reader.  Whenever  he  travelled,  whether  on  horse- 
back or  by  coach,  a  book  was  always  open  before  him.  Nobody 
could  adopt  more  truly  Cicero's  famous  praise  of  books,  "  Delec- 
tant  domi,  non  impediunt  foris,  pernoctant  nobiscum,  peregrinan- 
tur,  rusticantur."  Books  were,  indeed,  almost  his  only  compan- 
ions in  his  lonely  and  wandering  life.  And  his  reading  was  of 
the  best  the  world  affords.  In  his  constant  and  wearisome  labors, 
performed  mostly  with  and  for  people  of  scanty  ideas  and  narrow 
horizon,  he  found  refreshment  and  inspiration  in  the  master- 
pieces of  literature.  One  week,  he  has  read  over  again  Homer's 
Odyssey  and  breaks  out  in  a  fine  burst  of  admiration  for  the 
charm  of  its  imagery  and  the  nobility  of  its  morals;  another 
day,  while  riding  to  Newcastle,  he  reads  over  again  the  tenth  book 
of  the  Iliad ;  another  time  it  is  a  book  of  the  ^Eneid  or  the  Let- 
ters of  Cicero.  The  range  of  his  reading,  for  a  man  so  busy,  is 
most  remarkably  wide.  He  was  familiar  not  only  with  the  great 
works  of  his  own  literature,  but  with  those  of  the  Greek,  Latin, 
Italian,  French,  German,  and  he  had  a  good  reading  knowledge 
of  Spanish.  Among  the  authors  of  classic  rank  that  he  mentions 
in  the  "Journal"  are  Homer,  Plato,  Xenophon,  Demosthenes, 
Anacreon,  Lucian,  Virgil,  Cicero,  Juvenal,  Horace,  Ariosto, 
Tasso,  Voltaire,  Rousseau,  Shakespeare,  Milton,  Cowley,  Dry- 
den,  Locke,  Pope,  Swift,  Prior,  Young,  Thomson,  Gray,  Sterne, 
Johnson,  Ossian  —  and  I  am  sure  I  don't  know  how  many  more 
that  a  careful  examination  of  the  "Journal"  might  reveal.  For  I 
recall  these  names  not  as  an  exhaustive  list,  but  as  authors  men- 
tioned, not  merely  by  a  word  of  quotation  or  incidental  reference, 
but  in  a  way  to  indicate  that  Wesley  was  actually  reading  them 
at  the  time  or  had  long  been  familiar  with  them.  How  many  of 
his  successors  of  to-day,  I  wonder,  in  their  travels  by  land  and 
sea  about  the  world,  can  show  a  record  of  reading  like  that. 

But  this  love  of  good  reading,  though  it  always  implies  a  cer- 
tain breadth  and  distinction,  is  not  necessarily  a  proof  of  any  very 
high  degree  of  originality  or  mental  force.  John  Wesley,  it  goes 
without  saying,  was  more  than  a  man  of  culture ;  he  was  a  man 


110  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

of  power.  This  means  that  he  had  clear  intellectual  perception 
of  ends,  prompt  judgment  upon  the  means  to  those  ends,  and, 
above  all,  strong  and  steady  will  to  carry  his  purposes  into  effect. 
He  bent  circumstance  to  his  plans;  he  accomplished  things. 
His  manners  were  gentle;  his  temper  was  conciliatory;  but 
when  he  had  once  deliberately  made  up  his  mind,  his  determina- 
tion was  as  inflexible  as  Gibraltar.  I  say  when  he  had  deliberately 
made  up  his  mind ;  for  the  basis  of  Wesley's  action  was  always 
strong,  eighteenth-century  common  sense,  well  stiffened  with 
logic.  He  was  a  logician  from  his  cradle  —  there,  again,  his 
mother's  own  child,  for  Susanna  Wesley  had  fully  as  much  logic 
as  the  average  woman  has  any  use  for.  I  shall  not  venture  to 
quote  literally  in  this  presence  old  Samuel  Wesley's  witty  state- 
ment that  the  first  necessity  of  life  to  his  boy  Jack  was  a  syllo- 
gism. Certainly  the  deliberative  habit  ripened  early  in  the  lad, 
and  all  his  life  long  he  insisted  on  giving  logical  reasons  for  his 
conduct.  Mr.  Lecky  hardly  puts  it  too  strongly  when  he  says 
that  Wesley  manifested  at  all  times  and  on  all  subjects  an  even 
exaggerated  passion  for  reasoning.  He  frequently  expresses  in  his 
"Journal"  dissatisfaction  with  the'  members  of  his  societies,  not 
on  account  of  any  irregularities  in  their  conduct  or  any  lack  of 
pronounced  emotional  experiences,  but  because  they  are  not  able 
to  give  any  reasons  for  the  hope  that  is  in  them,  because  their 
faith  is  so  unintelligent.  Nothing  could  be  further  from  the 
truth  than  the  idea,  still  current,  I  think,  in  some  quarters,  that 
his  own  preaching  was  emotional  or  sensational  in  manner,  and 
meagre  or  shallow  in  thought.  Such  a  charge  might  perhaps  be 
brought  against  the  preaching  of  Whitefield  with  some  justice, 
but  not  against  that  of  Wesley.  He  is  earnest,  direct,  solemn ; 
but  his  sermons  almost  always  have  a  clear  logical  framework, 
and  his  rhetorical  manner  is  absolutely  plain  and  simple.  He 
had  no  patience  with  what  he  called  the  "amorous  style  of  praying 
and  luscious  style  of  preaching"  in  which  Whitefield  and  his  imi- 
tators sometimes  indulged.  His  own  writing,  it  may  be  admitted, 
lacks  breadth  and  suggestiveness ;  he  sticks  narrowly  to  his  sub- 
ject, and  he  has  not  the  imagination  to  illumine  or  illustrate  it ; 
but  no  writing  could  be  more  plain  and  direct.  His  model  was 
that  most  homely  and  vigorous  of  all  English  prose  writers, 
Jonathan  Swift,  in  whose  style  he  says  "all  the  properties  of  good 
writing  are  combined."  His  natural  gift  of  argument  had  been 
disciplined  in  his  university  days  by  his  duties  as  moderator  or 
judge  of  the  daily  debates  in  Lincoln  College ;  it  is  almost  the 
only  one  of  his  gifts  of  which  he  speaks  with  complacency,  per- 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  111 

haps  with  a  little  pride.  And,  in  fact,  his  writing  is  usually  best 
when  he  is  proving  or  confuting  something. 

I  think,  indeed,  that  Wesley  was  always  a  little  too  deferential 
to  a  syllogism.  He  forgot  that  our  conclusions  on  most  matters 
of  any  importance  are  not  the  result  of  a  single  line  of  argument 
but  the  resultant  of  many  lines ;  nay,  are  often  decided  not  by 
argument  at  all,  but  by  sentiment  and  instinct.  He  sometimes 
seems  ready  to  accept  any  conclusion  supported  by  a  clear  course 
of  reasoning,  and  thus  misses  a  broader  view  of  his  subject. 

And  then  Wesley,  in  his  admiration  for  a  good  course  of 
syllogism,  sometimes  neglects  to  inquire  very  carefully  what  has 
been  put  into  the  premises  of  his  syllogism.  I  do  not  think  he 
had  in  any  very  high  degree  the  gift  of  scientific  observation,  or 
always  reasoned  from  facts  to  laws  or  causes  very  correctly. 
His  deduction  was  better  than  his  induction.  He  has  been  fre- 
quently charged  with  credulity ;  the  charge  is  worth  a  moment's 
notice,  for  it  is  not  altogether  without  reason.  Some  of  the  in- 
stances, indeed,  upon  which  such  a  charge  has  been  based  seem 
to  me  no  proof  of  credulity,  but  rather —  so  far  as  I  can  see —  of 
consistency,  as  when  he  expresses  gratitude  that  a  cloud  slipped 
over  the  sun  just  as  its  rays  became  intolerably  hot  upon  his  bare 
head  while  he  was  preaching,  or  that  the  rain  suddenly  ceased  as 
he  was  about  to  address  a  company  of  several  thousand  people  in 
tfie  open  air.  To  assert  dogmatically  that  these  coincidences 
were  proof  of  a  special  providential  interposition  in  his  behalf 
would,  indeed,  have  been  arrogant}  but  that  is  what  Wesley 
never  did.  On  the  other  hand,  if  a  man  really  believe,  as  Wesley 
did  and  many  of  us  profess  to,  in  a  universal  providence  in 
which  no  accidents  are  possible,  it  is  as  consistent  to  believe 
small  matters  included  in  that  providence  as  great  ones.  Most  of 
us  act  as  if  we  thought  the  Almighty,  like  the  physician  in  the 
next  street,  didn't  bother  himself  about  our  little  ailments  or 
vexations,  but  might  be  induced  to  take  concern  in  a  serious  case 
of  typhoid  or  a  critical  surgical  operation  —  which  I  take  to  be  a 
kind  of  pagan  notion. 

When  the  loose  mountain  trembles  from  on  high, 
Will  gravitation  cease  as  you  go  by  ? 

asks  Pope  with  an  air  of  triumph.  Why,  no ;  yet  if  gravitation 
be  only  an  exercise  of  that  omniscient  will  without  whose  know- 
ledge not  a  sparrow  falls,  I  may  not  irrationally  hope  that  gravi- 
tation will  wait  till  I  am  past  —  and  be  thankful. 


112  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

The  real  proof  of  Wesley's  credulity  is  to  be  found,  I  suppose, 
in  the  too  easy  credence  he  gave  to  stories  of  the  preternatural, 
of  dreams,  visions,  second-sight,  ghosts,  and  witches.  His  life- 
long interest  in  such  matters  was  first  excited,  doubtless,  when 
he  was  a  boy,  by  the  "noises"  in  his  father's  rectory.  Those 
mysterious  knockings,  and  trampings,  and  liftings  of  latches,  and 
movings  of  furniture  continued  for  some  two  months,  and  were 
observed  and  recorded  so  carefully  that  it  is  impossible  to  doubt 
their  reality  and  equally  impossible  to  give  any  satisfactory 
explanation  of  them.  They  fixed  in  the  mind  of  young  Wesley 
an  unalterable  belief  in  unseen  beings,  and  all  his  life  long  he 
showed  an  eager  curiosity  in  any  stories  of  their  presence  or 
influence.  He  emphatically  expressed  his  belief  in  witches,  and 
declared  that  to  give  up  witchcraft  was  in  effect  to  give  up  the 
Bible —  a  dilemma  that  I  trust  we  need  not  accept.  The  "Jour- 
nal "  contains  an  admirable  collection  of  tales  of  wonder,  varying 
from  simple  cases  of  thought  transference  to  the  most  delightfully 
creepy  ghost  stories.  A  few  of  them  are  too  lurid  to  be  convinc- 
ing ;  but  the  most  of  them  seem  very  plausibly  attested,  and  were 
evidently  believed  by  the  people  who  told  them.  Wesley  him- 
self, though  often  careful  to  say  that  he  does  not  impose  his  own 
belief  on  any  one  else,  certainly  did  not  always  make  a  very 
careful  scrutiny  of  these  tales  before  accepting  them.  He  gives 
one  particularly  entertaining  story — ten  pages  long  —  of  a  young 
woman  who  was  visited  by  the  ghost  of  her  uncle  and  by  a  con- 
siderable number  of  other  spirits,  whose  chamber,  indeed,  seems 
to  have  been  a  kind  of  popular  resort  for  all  her  departed  friends ; 
and  with  this  story  Wesley  sets  down  a  very  odd  series  of  com- 
ments, queries,  and  inferences  of  his  own  with  reference  to  the 
behavior  of  the  ghosts,  which  I  think  would  hardly  satisfy  the 
requirements  of  strict  scientific  investigation. 

Yet  before  we  condemn  Wesley  in  too  superior  fashion,  we  may 
remember  that  the  most  hard-headed  philosopher  of  the  age, 
Samuel  Johnson,  shared  Wesley's  belief,  and  could  make  an 
appointment  with  the  Cock  Lane  Ghost  in  the  crypt  of  St.  Sepul- 
chre's Church.  And  we  may  remember,  too,  that  there  is  a  well- 
attested  body  of  occult  phenomena,  which  it  may  not  be  worth 
while  to  investigate,  but  which  candid  men  do  not  deny  with  con- 
tempt. In  fact,  Wesley's  interest  in  such  matters  is  not  exactly 
a  proof  of  credulity,  but  rather  of  a  singular  curiosity  with  refer- 
ence to  whatever  lies  on  the  borderland  of  experience.  It  was  an 
extension  beyond  scientific  limits  of  that  intense  interest  in  all 


Copyright,  1903,  by   THE  CENTURY  Co. 


JOHN  WESLEY 

Prom  the  portrait,  now  in  Didsbury  College,  painted  in  1741  by  J.  Williams 

See  p.  398,  July,  1903,  Century 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  113 

physical  facts  which  led  him  to  read  with  avidity  all  accounts  of 
chemical  experiment  and  to  follow  eagerly  the  new  science  of 
electricity. 

But  if  we  admit  there  was  a  vein  of  credulity  in  Wesley  with 
reference  to  the  preternatural,  we  must  insist  that  it  did  not 
vitiate  his  thinking  on  other  matters,  and  that  he  did  not  allow 
it  to  sanction  any  vagaries  of  conduct  either  in  himself  or  any 
one  else.  It  might  have  been  thought  that  such  an  interest  in 
Wesley  would  have  encouraged  an  element  of  superstition  in  his 
followers;  but  I  don't  find  that  it  did.  For  I  come  back  to  my 
previous  statement  that  the  foundation  of  Wesley's  nature  was 
sound,  solid  common  sense.  In  that  respect,  as  in  so  many 
others,  he  was  the  child  of  his  age.  His  genius  was  not  specu- 
lative, but  intensely  practical.  He  brought  everything  to  the 
test  of  life.  You  cannot  find  another  religious  reformer  of  any- 
thing like  equal  eminence  who  laid  so  little  stress  upon  opinion 
and  so  much  stress  upon  conduct.  I  need  not  remind  you  of  his 
constant  interest  in  all  practical  reforms  and  charities.  Prison 
reform,  needed  changes  in  the  law  for  debt,  the  more  humane 
treatment  of  prisoners  of  war,  public  sanitation,  the  founding  of 
dispensaries,  changes  in  the  treatment  of  the  insane,  the  passing 
of  laws  to  repress  medical  quackery, — these  are  only  a  few  of  the 
matters  in  which  he  was  actively  interested.  He  was  one  of  the 
earliest  advocates  of  a  reform  of  the  corrupt  and  unequal  system 
of  parliamentary  representation,  and  his  arguments  were  the 
same  as  those  used  when  the  reform  was  actually  effected,  seventy 
years  later.  When  in  his  eighty-third  year  he  wrote  a  long  letter 
to  William  Pitt — then  just  come  into  power — calling  attention 
to  some  much  needed  changes  in  the  system  of  English  taxation; 
and  the  very  last  letter  he  ever  penned,  with  failing  hand,  six 
days  before  his  death,  was  addressed  to  Wilberforce,  bidding  that 
young  champion  God-speed  in  his  great  work  of  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  the  British  colonies. 

But  we  need  not  look  beyond  his  own  system  of  religious  organ- 
ization to  find  proof  of  the  intensely  practical  order  of  his  genius. 
It  is  the  phase  of  Wesley's  work  that  has  received  most  frequent 
and  emphatic  commendation  from  the  historians.  "A  genius  for 
government  not  inferior  to  that  of  Richelieu,"  says  Macaulay. 
"The  first  of  theological  statesmen,"  is  Buckle's  phrase.  "His 
talent  for  business  and  for  spiritual  influence  command  equally 
our  wonder;  no  such  leader  of  men  appeared  in  the  eighteenth 
century,"  says  Leslie  Stephen.  "A  wider  constructive  influence 


114  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

in  the  sphere  of  practical  religion  than  any  other  man  who  has 
appeared  since  the  sixteenth  century,"  affirms  Mr.  Lecky.  Bat 
the  interesting  thing  with  reference  to  all  this  work  of  Wesley  is 
its  homely,  practical,  and  essentially  conservative  character.  He 
has  nothing  of  the  temper  of  the  revolutionist  or  doctrinaire  re- 
former. In  fact,  Wesley  always  had  a  natural  dread  of  change 
and  experiment.  His  whole  system,  with  its  conferences  and 
societies  and  lay-preachers  and  class-leaders,  was  not  carefully 
devised  beforehand;  it  was  not  a  scheme,  but  a  growth.  Wesley, 
as  we  know,  hesitated  at  every  step  which  involved  some  new 
departure  from  established  order  or  usage;  and  to  the  last  was 
reluctant  to  believe  that  the  great  organization  which  had  almost 
insensibly  grown  up  under  his  direction,  must  be  quite  separated 
from  the  parent  church.  But  it  is  impossible,  I  think,  to  admire 
too  much  the  sound  practical  judgment  with  which  he  met  every 
exigency  as  it  arose,  adapted  old  means  to  new  ends,  kept  his 
work  in  accord,  wherever  possible,  with  established  methods,  but 
when  convinced  that  it  was  necessary,  reluctantly,  yet  with 
quiet  decision,  cut  whatever  tie  of  tradition  thwarted  or  fettered 
the  work  he  felt  called  to  do.  Where  else  can  you  find  a  religious 
movement,  with  results  so  widespread  and  so  permanent,  develop- 
ing a  special  system  of  organization  and  economy  that  has  stood 
the  test  of  a  century  and  a  half,  a  movement  so  entirely  directed 
by  one  man,  and  bearing  the  impress  of  his  personality  in  its  doc- 
trines, its  methods,  and  its  spirit,  worked  out  without  influential 
friends  and  in  spite  of  formidable  opposition,  and  yet  carried 
through  with  such  sagacity  and  with  so  few  errors  of  practical 
judgment. 

But  there  was  in  John  Wesley  something  warmer  than  logic, 
however  well  sanctified;  something  more  winning  than  practical 
statesmanship,  however  unselfish.  I  am  aware  that  some  students 
of  Wesley's  life  have  pronounced  him  cold  of  temperament.  Nor 
is  this  strange.  The  circumstances  of  his  life  made  it  impossible 
that  he  should  leave  in  his  writings  any  adequate  picture  of  his 
disposition  on  the  side  of  the  affections.  He  had  no  children,  few 
intimate  friends;  his  correspondence,  therefore,  is  almost  all  official 
and  pastoral.  His  "Journal"  was  written  with  the  expectation 
that  it  would  be  published;  it  is  not  a  Journal  Intime.  It  is 
true,  moreover,  that  the  sympathies,  which  in  other  circumstances 
he  might  have  concentrated  upon  a  few,  were  largely  diffused 
among  the  thousands  who  looked  to  him  for  counsel  and  inspira- 
tion. Yet  he  knows  Wesley  very  imperfectly  who  judges  his  tern- 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  115 

perament  to  have  been  cold.  His  reverent  love  for  his  mother;  his 
life-long  love  for  his  brother  Charles — one  of  the  noblest  and  most 
beautiful  fraternal  friendships  ever  recorded;  his  solicitous  and 
half  playful  tenderness  for  his  nephews  and  niece,  the  children  of 
Charles — all  these  are  proof  enough  that  his  nature  was  not  cold 
or  insensitive.  I  should  go  a  good  deal  further  than  that.  You 
will  probably  accuse  me  of  effort  after  paradox  if  I  say  that  John 
Wesley  was  a  sentimentalist;  but  it  certainly  is  not  extravagant 
paradox.  Of  course  we  shall  not  expect  from  his  dignified  self- 
possession  any  unrestrained  impulse  or  dishevelled  emotion,  yet 
combined  with  this  clear,  practical  intellect  there  was  a  strongly 
contrasted  vein  of  sentiment.  He  was  always  peculiarly  sensitive 
to  the  charm  of  youthful  sentiment  in  others;  as  his  favorite 
niece  prettily  put  it:  "My  uncle  John  always  showed  peculiar 
sympathy  to  young  people  in  love."  He  certainly  was  very  sus- 
ceptible to  that  tender  passion  himself,  and  not  always  wisely. 
Everybody  knows  that  John  Welsey  was  not  fortunate  in  what 
the  older  moralists  used  to  call  "the  conduct  of  the  affections." 
The  whole  story, — which  you  need  not  fear  that  I  am  about  to 
tell, — from  the  time  of  his  early  sentimental  correspondence  with 
that  very  polite  lady  of  society,  Mrs.  Pendarves,  afterward  Mrs. 
Delany,  through  his  attachment  to  Miss  Sophia  Hopkey,  which 
was  thwarted  by  the  Moravian  elders  in  Savannah,  and  his  at- 
tachment to  Mrs.  Grace  Murray,  which  was  thwarted  by  his 
brother  Charles,  down  to  his  hasty  and  ill-considered  marriage 
with  Mrs.  Vazeille,  which,  unfortunately,  was  not  thwarted  by 
anybody,  though  it  all  reflects  nothing  but  credit  upon  the 
purity  of  his  character,  certainly  indicates  that  the  practical 
judgment,  so  trustworthy  in  all  other  matters,  was  never  proof 
against  the  invasions  of  sentiment.  I  am  not  sure,  indeed,  that 
Wesley's  ideal  of  the  marriage  state  was  exactly  fitted  to  insure 
happiness  in  that  state.  I  remember  he  wrote  in  a  late  pamphlet 
that  the  duties  of  a  wife  are  all  comprised  in  two:  "First,  that  she 
should  recognize  herself  as  the  inferior  of  her  husband;  second, 
that  she  should  behave  herself  as  such" — a  dictum  that  recalls 
the  remark  of  Mrs.  Poyser,  in  the  novel,  that  "what  a  man  mostly 
wants  of  a  wife  is  to  make  sure  of  one  fool  as'll  tell  him  he's  wise." 
This  rather  medieval  opinion  came  from  the  later  years  of  Wesley, 
I  believe,  and  may  have  been  an  unwarranted  generalization  from 
his  individual  experience;  but  it  must  be  admitted  that  neither  of 
the  two  or  three  women  on  whom,  at  different  times,  he  set  his 
heart,  nor  the  woman  whom  he  finally  married, — whether  he  ever 


116  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

set  his  heart  on  her  or  not  I  don't  know, — was  a  woman  whom  he 
would  ever  have  thought  fitted  by  temperament,  culture,  or  social 
position  to  become  his  wife,  had  not  his  judgment  been  curiously 
overbalanced  by  his  sentiment. 

But  we  all  know  from  history  —  if  not  from  experience — 
that  the  most  prudent  man  cannot  lose  his  heart  without  immi- 
nent danger  of  losing  his  head  also.  I  find  a  more  interesting, 
and  no  less  convincing,  proof  of  this  vein  of  sentimentality  in 
Wesley  in  his  literary  verdicts,  especially  upon  contemporary 
books.  The  "Journal"  contains  many  of  these;  and  some  of 
them  are  very  curious.  He  shared  the  universal  and  just  admi- 
ration of  his  age  for  the  poetry  of  Pope ;  but  significantly  the 
one  poem  of  Pope  with  which  he  was  most  familiar  was  not 
pointed  satire  or  epigrammatic  philosophy,  but  Pope's  one  piece 
of  elegant  sentimentalism,  the  "  Elegy  on  an  Unfortunate  Lady"; 
this  he  quotes  again  and  again,  and  remarks  once  that  it  has 
long  been  a  favorite  of  his.  It  was  not  Pope,  however,  that,  of 
all  the  Queen  Anne  men,  Wesley  admired  most,  but  rather  Prior. 
He  quotes  him  repeatedly  in  the  "Journal";  and  when  Sam 
Johnson,  in  the  newly  issued  "  Lives  of  the  Poets,"  spoke  in  terms 
of  depreciation  both  of  Prior's  character  and  of  his  verse,  Wes- 
ley, then  in  his  eightieth  year,  came  to  the  defence  of  his  favorite 
poet  in  a  most  spirited  paper  in  the  "Arminian  Magazine." 
Prior,  he  declared,  was  not  half  so  bad  a  man  as  he  had  been 
painted ;  while  as  to  his  poetry,  he  takes  up  the  great  doctor's 
strictures  upon  that  seriatim  for  half-indignant  reply.  Prior's 
verse  is  light,  airy,  graceful,  he  says ;  his  diction  easy  and  elegant ; 
and  as  to  Johnson's  charge  that  Prior's  poems  are  unaffecting, 
"  Unaffecting ! "  cries  Wesley,  "so  far  from  it,  that  I  know  not  what 
man  with  any  sensibility  can  read  them  without  tears."  Similar 
expressions  of  preference  for  the  sentimental  and  romantic  ele- 
ments in  literature  are  very  frequent  in  the  "  Journal."  Of  Thom- 
son's poetry,  for  instance,  he  had  never  thought  very  highly  till  he 
read  his  romantic  tragedy  of  "  Henry  and  Eleanor,"  by  which,  he 
says,  he  was  greatly  impressed.  Beattie,  whose  almost  forgotten 
work  is  an  attempt  to  give  a  romantic  flavor  to  the  warmed-over 
philosophy  of  Pope,  he  pronounces  one  of  the  best  of  poets — an 
opinion  shared,  so  far  as  I  know,  only  by  King  George  III. 
Home's  sentimental  and  declamatory  drama  of  "  Douglas,"  now 
remembered  only  by  the  lines, 

My  name  is  Norval ;  on  the  Grampian  hills 
My  father  feeds  his  flocks, 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  117 

he  is  astonished  to  find  "  one  of  the  most  excellent  dramas  I  ever 
read"— and  he  had  read  a  good  many,  for  he  was  always  fond  of 
drama,  and  used  to  advise  his  preachers  to  read  plays  aloud  to 
cultivate  a  natural  method  of  speaking.  Like  so  many  of  his 
contemporaries,  he  was  captivated  by  the  big  romantico-senti- 
mental  bombast  of  the  pseudo-Ossian.  "What  a  poet  was 
Ossian,"  he  exclaims,  "  little  inferior  to  Homer  or  Virgil,  and  in 
some  respects  superior  to  both"  —  a  verdict  which  contrasts 
oddly  with  the  contemptuous  reply  of  Johnson,  when  Boswell 
asked  if  he  did  not  think  there  were  many  men  in  England  who 
could  have  written  the  poetry  of  Ossian.  "  Yes,"  snorted  John- 
son, "  a  great  many  men  could  have  written  it,  and  a  great  many 
women  could  have  written  it,  and  a  great  many  children  could 
have  written  it."  But  the  sentimental  vein  in  Sam  Johnson  was 
not  very  pronounced.  Of  contemporary  fiction,  I  find  no  evi- 
dence in  the  "Journal"  that  Wesley  had  read  Richardson  or 
Fielding ;  but  it  is  curious  to  notice  his  familiarity  with  the 
work  of  that  eighteenth-century  incarnation  of  sentimentality, 
Laurence  Sterne.  Of  the  "  Sentimental  Journey  "  he  writes  in 
his  "Journal " :  "  '  Sentimental/  what  is  that?  It  is  not  English  j 
he  might  as  well  say  '  continental.'  It  is  not  sense.  It  conveys 
no  determinate  idea.  Yet  this  nonsensical  word  is  now  become  a 
fashionable  one.  However,  the  book  agrees  well  with  the  title, 
for  the  one  is  as  queer  as  the  other.  For  oddity,  uncouthness, 
and  unlikeness  to  all  the  world  beside,  I  suppose  the  writer  to 
be  without  a  rival"  —  an  account  so  just  as  to  make  me  pretty 
sure  that  he  had  read  the  book.  The  "  Tristram  Shandy,"  too, 
he  must  have  read,  for  he  points  an  argument  in  one  of  his 
pamphlets  by  a  reference  to  it.  He  never  wrote  a  novel  himself; 
but  when  he  was  nearly  eighty  years  old,  he  revised  and  abridged 
one  that  he  greatly  admired,  and  recommended  it  to  Methodist 
readers.  Henry  Brooke's  "Fool  of  Quality"  would  be  voted 
rather  insipid  by  the  novel-reader  of  to-day,  I  suspect ;  but  Wes- 
ley was  fascinated  by  its  profuse  sentiment.  "The  greatest  ex- 
cellence," says  he,  "in  this  book  is  that  it  continually  strikes  at 
the  heart.  The  strokes  are  so  fine,  so  natural  and  affecting  that 
I  know  not  who  can  read  it  with  tearless  eyes."  Most  readers 
to-day,  I  think,  would  be  able  to  control  their  emotions  through 
the  perusal ;  but  Wesley's  remark  is  another  of  the  many  proofs 
that  his  usual  good  judgment  was  always  liable  to  be  misled  by 
his  indulgence  to  sentiment. 

In  this  respect,  however,  as  in  many  others,  Wesley  was  the 
8* 


118  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

child  of  his  age.  Everybody  knows  that  about  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century  this  trend  to  sentimentalism  is  to  be  seen  not 
only  in  England  but  all  over  Europe.  It  accompanied  the 
growth  of  democratic  sentiment.  The  era  of  Pope  and  Voltaire 
was  passing,  the  era  of  Rousseau  was  beginning.  Literature 
everywhere  was  growing  emotional  and  romantic.  Perhaps  one 
may  say  that  this  unconscious  sympathy  with  the  trend  of  his 
age  was  one  cause  of  the  vast  influence  of  Wesley ;  he  had  the 
Zeitgeist  on  his  side. 

But  all  this,  as  you  are  saying  to  yourselves,  does  not  reveal 
the  deepest  things  in  the  character  of  this  man  John  Wesley,  or 
touch  the  real  secret  of  his  wonderful  influence.  What  was  the 
motive  that  brought  all  his  powers  into  play  f  What  was  the 
force  behind  this  life  of  tireless  and  wonderful  activity  ?  He  was 
a  gentleman,  but  he  cared  little  for  social  recognition  or  influ- 
ence; he  was  a  scholar,  but  learning  and  letters  he  counted 
among  the  means,  and  not  among  the  en^s,  of  life ;  he  was  an 
ecclesiastical  statesman,  but  he  had  no  thirst  for  selfish  power ; 
he  swayed  more  human  lives  than  any  other  Englishman  of  his 
century,  but  his  motive  was  never  mere  personal  ambition. 
No,  you  do  not  explain  or  understand  John  Wesley  till  you  see 
that  the  forces  at  the  centre  of  his  character  were  love  of  man 
and  faith  in  God  :  that  love  of  man  without  which  such  a  life  of 
unselfish  devotion  is  inconceivable ;  that  faith  in  God  without 
which  the  love  of  man,  even  in  the  bravest  souls,  may  lead,  in 
such  a  world  as  this,  to  hopeless  and  despairing  pessimism.  John 
Wesley  was  preeminently  a  man  of  religion  —  a  religious  man  in 
an  irreligious  age.  The  age  of  Wesley  was  doubtless  an  age  of 
low  morals ;  you  can  say  a  great  many  unhandsome  things  of  it 
truly  enough.  But  the  gravest  charge  against  that  cold  eighteenth 
century  is  that  it  was  essentially  irreligious ;  it  had  well-nigh 
lost  any  real  love  for  man  or  faith  in  God.  The  temper  of  the 
age  was  one  of  calm,  reasoned  acquiescence.  The  world  was  full 
of  evils,  doubtless,  men  said,  but  the  philosopher  will  not  magnify 
them.  No  extravagant  desire,  no  enervating  sympathy ;  either 
one  savors  of  enthusiasm.  It  is  not  exactly  the  best  of  all  possi- 
ble worlds,  certainly ;  but  at  all  events  we  can  make  the  best  of  it. 


The  world  is  very  ill,  we  see ; 

We  do  not  comprehend  it : 
But  in  one  point  we  all  agree  — 

God  won't,  and  we  can't,  mend  it. 


WESLEYAN  UNIVEESITY  119 

Being  common  sense,  it  can't  be  sin 

To  take  it  as  I  find  it ; 
The  pleasure  to  take  pleasure  in, 

The  pain  —  try  not  to  mind  it. 

These  lines  of  a  modern  poet  might  not  inaccurately  express 
the  temper  of  thousands  upon  thousands  of  decent  and  virtuous 
folk  when  Wesley  began  his  work.  But  not  thus  could  Wesley 
look  upon  the  sin  or  the  sorrow  of  the  world.  He  knew  that 
God  would,  and  that  therefore  man  could,  mend  and  lift  up  this 
bad  and  broken  world.  And  so,  not  with  a  sudden  flare  of  youth- 
ful enthusiasm,  but  with  a  steadfast,  lifelong  resolution,  he  gave 
himself  to  the  work  of  winning  men  to  righteousness,  from  the 
love  of  sin  to  the  love  of  God.  It  is  this  high  confidence  in 
spiritual  ideals  that  lifts  him  above  the  dull  level  of  his  time  and 
gives  to  a  life  that  otherwise  might  have  been  only  coldly  correct 
the  warmer  hue  of  heroism,  the  steady  glow  of  a  divine  passion. 

John  Wesley's  religious  life  began  in  the  nursery ;  and,  in 
spite  of  what  some  of  the  biographers  have  said,  I  do  not  find 
that  the  symmetrical  development  of  the  child  into  manhood  was 
ever  interrupted.  There  was,  indeed,  no  precocious  religiosity 
about  him  ;  but  the  clean,  healthy-minded,  conscientious  boy  who 
went  up  to  the  Charterhouse  School  at  eight  years  grew  nor- 
mally into  the  thoughtful  young  man  who  entered  Oxford  at 
eighteen,  and  the  serious,  earnest  High-Church  Methodist  who 
took  orders  and  was  elected  Fellow  of  Lincoln  College  at  twenty- 
two.  Special  influences,  particularly  that  of  William  Law, 
deepened  and  directed  his  religious  life  at  different  times ;  but  its 
growth  was  continuous  and  normal.  Yet  that  religious  life  up  to 
this  time,  and  for  twelve  years  more,  was  not  of  the  sort  that 
revolutionizes  the  world.  John  Wesley  the  Oxford  Methodist 
was  not  John  Wesley  the  evangelist.  His  life  during  those 
long  and  happy  years  as  Fellow  of  Lincoln  was  devout,  strict  in 
all  outward  observance,  full  of  good  works ;  but  it  was  the 
monastic  or  ascetic  type  of  life.  He  was  not  interested  in  others ; 
he  was  intent  on  saving  his  own  soul.  It  is  not  strange  that  the 
little  group  of  Oxford  men  who  were  called  in  derision  Methodists 
made  no  converts :  they  were  not  trying  to  make  converts. 
They  separated  themselves  from  the  life  of  the  university,  and 
shut  their  doors  against  the  companionship  of  the  great  body  of 
their  fellow-students.  "  I  resolved,"  says  Wesley,  "  to  have  only 
such  acquaintance  as  could  help  me  on  my  way  to  heaven."  It 
took  John  Wesley  long  to  learn  that  this  is  not  the  spirit  of 


120  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

Christianity  —  that  Jesus  Christ  would  not  found  a  Holy  Club. 
Even  when  he  left  Oxford  and  sailed  for  Georgia  to  preach  to  the 
Indians,  "  My  chief  motive  in  going,"  he  says  explicitly,  "  was  to 
save  my  own  soul."  It  was  not  until  after  his  return,  disappointed 
in  his  mission,  dissatisfied  with  himself,  that  Wesley,  taught 
more  perfectly  by  the  good  Moravians  the  great  Protestant  doc- 
trines of  justification  and  assurance,  passed  to  that  higher  stage 
of  religious  experience  in  which  he  could  forget  himself  in  love 
for  his  fellow-men.  Everybody  who  knows  Wesley's  story 
remembers  that  evening  in  the  Aldersgate  society  when  he  felt 
his  "  heart  strangely  warmed."  But  for  weeks  before  that  he  had 
been  preaching  wherever  a  church  was  opened  to  him ;  weeks 
before  that,  he  says  on  one  evening,  "  My  heart  was  so  full  that  I 
could  not  confine  myself  to  the  forms  of  prayer";  and  on  another 
evening,"  My  heart  was  so  enlarged  to  declare  the  love  of  God  to 
all  that  are  oppressed."  This  is  not  the  language  of  the  Oxford 
Methodist,  the  ascetic  bent  on  saving  his  own  soul;  this  is  the 
Wesley  we  know,  John  Wesley  the  evangelist.  I  would  not 
underestimate  the  significance  of  that  hour  made  memorable  to 
Wesley  by  a  sudden  access  of  spiritual  confidence ;  yet  the  deep- 
est proof  of  his  religious  development,  of  the  change  in  his 
religious  life  in  that  period  of  transition,  is  not  any  such  tempo- 
rary exaltation  of  feeling,  but  the  growth  of  that  self-forgetful 
love  for  man  and  trust  in  God  which  have  been  the  inspiration 
of  great  religious  leaders  in  every  age. 

From  this  time  on,  the  religion  of  Wesley  was  preeminently 
healthy,  sane,  and  practical.  Many  readers  of  the  "  Journal "  may 
be  surprised  to  find  that  in  all  the  record  of  the  fifty  years  after 
about  1740  there  is  hardly  any  reference  whatever  to  his  own 
emotions,  to  what  is  commonly  called  personal  religious  experi- 
ence. He  tells  you  a  good  deal  about  the  experience  of  others ; 
for  himself,  he  tells  you  where  he  went,  to  whom  he  preached, 
what  he  saw,  what  he  did,  what  he  read ;  he  very  seldom  tells  you 
how  he  felt.  He  was  not  one  of  the  Christians  who  live  always 
with  an  anxious  finger  on  their  spiritual  pulse.  After  he  had  got 
out  from  under  the  more  immediate  influence  of  the  Moravians, 
he  had  no  patience  with  anything  that  looked  like  mysticism  or 
quietism,  and  the  one  charge  against  which  he  protested  most 
earnestly  was  the  charge  of  enthusiasm.  "  The  reproach  of 
Christ,"  he  says  almost  passionately,  "  I  am  willing  to  bear ;  but 
not  the  reproach  of  enthusiasm  —  if  I  can  help  it."  In  truth, 
despite  a  contrary  opinion  widely  current  then,  and  sometimes 


WESLEYAN  UNIVEESITY  121 

heard  even  yet,  the  Wesleyan  movement  owed  its  deep  and  perma- 
nent influence  very  largely  to  the  fact  that  the  type  of  religion  it 
fostered  was  so  thoroughly  healthy  and  practical.  Such  a  move- 
ment must  necessarily  involve  much  emotional  excitement.  It  is 
only  by  some  strong  compulsion  of  soul  that  men  by  thousands 
can  be  led  to  turn  from  long-confirmed  habits  of  vice  to  a  life 
clean,  righteous,  devout.  Moreover,  it  is  inevitable  that  such  a 
passage  from  moral  disease  to  moral  health  should  often  be  ac- 
companied by  something  of  morbid  or  irregular  emotion.  But  it 
may  be  confidently  affirmed  that  never  was  a  great  popular  re- 
ligious movement,  so  wide-spread  and  so  searching,  more  free 
from  unwholesome  teaching  or  unwholesome  stimulus.  Wesley 
never  encouraged  mere  empty  ardors  or  morbid  religious  melan- 
choly. He  tested  the  faith  of  his  converts  by  its  fruits  in  right 
living ;  he  imposed  upon  his  societies  a  beneficent  system  of 
practical  discipline ;  and  he  impressed  upon  the  whole  movement 
his  own  sane  and  rational  temper. 

At  the  same  time  it  must  be  emphasized — Methodists,  it  is  to 
be  hoped,  will  never  forget  it  —  that  the  Wesleyan  movement  was 
not  merely  or  primarily  ethical,  but  evangelical.  It  is  true  that 
Wesley  was  in  advance  of  his  age  in  his  advocacy  of  all  measures 
to  advance  the  moral  and  physical  conditions  of  society ;  it  may 
be  true,  as  the  most  brilliant  of  recent  English  historians  has 
said,  that  the  noblest  result  of  the  movement  was  "  the  steady  at- 
tempt, which  has  never  ceased  from  that  day  to  this,  to  remedy 
the  guilt,  the  ignorance,  the  physical  suffering,  the  social  degrada- 
tion of  the  profligate  and  the  poor."  Yet,  I  repeat,  the  Wesleyan 
movement  was  distinctly  a  religious  revival.  Wesley  was  no  be- 
liever in  salvation  by  education  and  culture,  still  less  by  sanita- 
tion and  fresh  air.  He  accepted  the  declaration  of  the  Master : 
"  Ye  must  be  born  again."  He  knew  that  a  genuinely  religious 
life,  though  not  manifesting  itself  in  any  uniform  type  of  emo- 
tional experience,  must  always  spring  from  a  love  to  God  that 
changes  and  directs  all  a  man's  desires,  controls  all  his  actions, 
and  he  knew  that  such  a  religious  life  is  inspired  and  nurtured 
by  influences  supernatural  and  divine. 

But,  given  the  central  force  of  a  Christian  life,  manifesting 
itself  in  devout  and  beneficent  activity,  and  Wesley  was  the  most 
liberal  of  all  religious  leaders  in  his  demands  for  doctrinal  beliefs, 
and  he  grew  more  liberal  every  year  of  his  life  to  the  end.  His 
liberality  was  not  that  of  the  man  whose  own  beliefs  are  of  the  car- 
tilaginous sort :  he  had  a  full  set  of  definite  and  consistent  opin- 


122  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

ions;  but  he  would  not  force  them  upon  others.  All  those 
familiar  with  his  life  know  how  frequent  and  how  sweeping  are 
his  expressions  of  tolerance.  "I  am  sick  of  opinions,"  he  says; 
"  let  my  soul  be  with  Christians  wherever  they  are  and  of  whatso- 
ever opinions  they  be  of."  And  again,  "  I  desire  to  have  a  league 
offensive  and  defensive  with  every  soldier  of  Christ."  In  a  dis- 
cussion of  this  matter  in  Conference  he  said,  "  I  have  no  more 
right  to  object  to  a  man  for  holding  a  different  opinion  from  mine 
than  I  have  to  differ  with  a  man  because  he  wears  a  wig  and  I 
wear  my  own  hair ;  but  if  he  take  his  wig  off  and  shake  the  pow- 
der in  my  eyes,  I  shall  consider  it  my  duty  to  get  quit  of  him  as 
soon  as  possible."  Over  and  over  again  he  insisted  that  Metho- 
dists are  the  most  liberal  of  all  Christians.  "  The  Methodists 
alone  do  not  insist  on  your  holding  this  or  that  doctrine."  "  They 
do  not  impose  any  opinion  whatever.  They  think  and  let  think." 
"They  ask  only,  'Is  thy  heart  as  my  heart  ?;"  And  he  adds  with 
just  pride,  "  Where  is  there  such  another  religious  society,  so 
truly  of  a  catholic  spirit?  In  Europe?  In  the  habitable  world? 
I  know  of  none."  His  charity,  indeed,  extended  far  outside  the 
limits  of  orthodoxy.  He  printed  for  Methodists  a  life  of  that 
good  Unitarian,  Thomas  Firmin — a  very  pious  man,  he  said.  The 
arch-heretics  of  history,  Montanus  of  the  second  century,  Pela- 
gius  of  the  fifth  century,  Servetus  of  the  sixteenth  century — he 
declared  that  in  his  opinion  they  were  all  holy  men,  who  at  the 
last,  with  all  the  good  men  of  the  heathen  world,  Socrates  and 
Plato  and  Trajan  and  Marcus  Aurelius,  would  come  from  the 
east  and  the  west  to  sit  down  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Re- 
ligious history  from  the  dawn  of  Christianity  to  the  present  day 
may  be  searched  in  vain  to  find  another  leader  of  equal  promi- 
nence and  equal  positiveness  of  personal  opinion  who  showed  such 
genuine  liberality  as  the  great  founder  of  Methodism . 

In  his  own  personal  life  he  exemplified  some  of  the  most 
winning  graces  of  the  Christian  character.  Returning  good  for 
evil,  cherishing  no  resentments,  firm  of  will  yet  gentle  in  man- 
ner, genial  and  wise  in  counsel,  liberal, — for  he  literally  gave  away 
all  his  living, —  yet  always  prudent  in  the  bestowment  of  his 
charities,  with  exhaustless  sympathy  for  all  the  sinful  and  the 
sorrowing;  and  yet  never  downcast,  but  always  cheerful  and 
optimistic  —  his  own  life  was  the  embodiment  of  the  religion  he 
preached.  And  that  life  grew  more  beautiful  as  it  neared  its 

term.    His  was 

an  old  age  serene  and  bright, 
And  lovely  as  a  Lapland  night. 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  123 

He  was  free  from  the  infirmities  that  often  render  age  pitiable 
rather  than  venerable.  At  eighty-five  he  says  that  age  seems 
stealing  gently  upon  him ;  his  sight  is  a  little  dim,  and  he  can 
not  run  or  walk  quite  so  fast  as  once  he  could,  but  he  thanks 
God  he  knows  no  weariness.  His  mental  powers  were  unim- 
paired, and  his  relish  of  life  as  keen  as  ever.  He  retained  his 
love  for  books,  for  music,  and  especially  for  natural  scenery; 
while  his  conversation,  they  say,  was  even  more  vivacious, 
cheerful,  and  wide-ranging  than  in  his  younger  days.  His  temper 
only  grew  mellower  with  the  years,  his  charity  more  gentle  and 
all-embracing. 

For  the  last  ten  years  of  his  life  he  was  perhaps  the  best 
beloved  man  in  England ;  and  there  were  thousands  of  his  fol- 
lowers and  friends  to  whom  that  good  gray  head  seemed  almost 
to  wear  a  halo. 

He  was  not  a  perfect  man,  and  Methodists  then  and  since  then 
have  perhaps  often  idealized  him.  Yet  among  religious  reformers 
where  is  there  a  nobler  figure,  a  purer  example  of  a  life  hospitable 
to  all  truth,  fostering  all  culture,  yet  subordinating  all  aspira- 
tion, directing  all  culture,  to  the  unselfish  service  of  humanity  ? 
I  do  not  ask  whether  he  was  the  greatest  man  of  his  century. 
That  were  an  idle  question.  That  century  was  rich  in  names  the 
world  calls  great  —  great  generals  like  Marlborough,  great  mon- 
archs  like  Frederick,  great  statesmen  like  Chatham  and  Burke, 
poets  and  critics  like  Pope  and  Johnson  and  Lessing,  writers  who 
helped  revolutionize  society,  like  Voltaire  and  Rousseau ;  but  run 
over  the  whole  brilliant  list,  and  where  among  them  all  is  the  man 
whose  motives  were  so  pure,  whose  life  was  so  unselfish,  whose 
character  was  so  spotless?  Where  among  them  all  is  the  man 
whose  influence,  social,  moral,  religious,  was  productive  of  such 
vast  good  and  of  so  little  evil,  as  this  plain  man  who  exemplified 
himself,  and  taught  thousands  of  his  fellow-men  to  know,  what 
the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  really  means? 

Fitly  might  he  have  been  given  a  grave  in  the  great  abbey  that 
holds  the  tombs  of  a  score  of  kings  and  dust  of  better  men  than 
kings ;  yet  still  more  fitting  is  it  that  he  should  rest,  as  he  does, 
in  the  central  roar  of  vast  London,  in  the  throng  and  surge  of 
that  mass  of  common  men  with  whom  and  for  whom  he  labored, 
beside  that  homely  chapel  which  was  the  centre,  and  is  still  the 
monument,  of  that  great  religious  movement  into  which  he  had 
poured  his  life ! 


124  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

POEM 
BY  EICHAED  WATSON  GILDER 


IN  those  clear,  piercing,  piteous  eyes  behold 
The  very  soul  that  over  England  flamed! 
Deep,  pure,  intense;  consuming  shame  and  ill; 
Convicting  men  of  sin;  making  faith  live; 
And, — this  the  mightiest  miracle  of  all, — 
Creating  God  again  in  human  hearts. 

What  courage  of  the  flesh  and  of  the  spirit! 
How  grim  of  wit,  when  wit  alone  might  serve ! 
What  wisdom  his  to  know  the  boundless  might 
Of  banded  effort  in  a  world  like  ours! 
How  meek,  how  self-f orgetf  ul,  courteous,  calm !  — 
A  silent  figure  when  men  idly  raged 
In  murderous  anger;  calm,  too,  in  the  storm,— 
Storm  of  the  spirit,  strangely  imminent, 
When  spiritual  lightnings  struck  men  down 
And  brought,  by  violence,  the  sense  of  sin, 
And  violently  oped  the  gates  of  peace. 

O  hear  that  voice,  which  rang  from  dawn  to  night, 
In  church  and  abbey  whose  most  ancient  walls 
Not  for  a  thousand  years  such  accents  knew ! 
On  windy  hilltops;  by  the  roaring  sea; 
'Mid  tombs,  in  market-places,  prisons,  fields; 
'Mid  clamor,  vile  attack, — or  deep-awed  hush, 
Wherein  celestial  visitants  drew  near 
And  secret  ministered  to  troubled  souls! 

Hear  ye,  O  hear!  that  ceaseless-pleading  voice, 
Which  storm,  nor  suffering,  nor  age  could  still, — 


RICHARD  WATSON  GILDER 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  125 

Chief  prophet- voice  through  nigh  a  century's  span! 

Now  silvery  as  Zion's  dove  that  mourns, 

Now  quelling  as  the  Archangel's  judgment-trump, 

And  ever  with  a  sound  like  that  of  old 

"Which,  in  the  desert,  shook  the  wandering  tribes, 

Or,  round  about  storied  Jerusalem, 

Or  by  Gennesaret,  or  Jordan,  spake 

The  words  of  life. 

Let  not  that  image  fade 
Ever,  O  God !  from  out  the  minds  of  men, 
Of  him  Thy  messenger  and  stainless  priest, 
In  a  brute,  sodden  and  unfaithful  time, 
Early  and  late,  o'er  land  and  sea,  on-driven; 
In  youth,  in  eager  manhood,  age  extreme, — 
Driven  on  forever,  back  and  forth  the  world, 
By  that  divine,  omnipotent  desire — 
The  hunger  and  the  passion  for  men's  souls! 

Ah,  how  he  loved  Christ's  poor!  No  narrow  thought 
Dishumaned  any  soul  from  his  emprise; 
But  his  the  prayer  sincere  that  Heaven  might  send 
Him  chiefly  to  the  humble ;  he  would  be, 
Even  as  the  Galilean,  dedicate 
Unto  the  ministry  of  lowliness : 
That  boon  did  Heaven  mercifully  grant; 
And  gladly  was  he  heard;  and  rich  the  fruit; 
While  still  the  harvest  ripens  round  the  earth; 
And  many  own  the  name  once  given  in  scorn; 
And  all  revere  the  holy  life  he  led, 
Praise  what  he  did  for  England,  and  the  world, 
And  call  that  greatness  which  was  once  reproach. 
Would  we  were  worthy  for  his  praise. 

Dear  God! 

Thy  servant  never  knew  one  selfish  hour! 
How  are  we  shamed,  who  look  upon  a  world 
Ages  afar  from  that  true  kingdom  preached 
Millenniums  ago  in  Palestine! 

Send  us,  again,  O  Spirit  of  all  Truth! 
High  messengers  of  dauntless  faith  and  power 
Like  him  whose  memory  this  day  we  praise, 
We  cherish  and  we  praise  with  burning  hearts. 


126  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

Let  kindle,  as  before,  from  his  bright  torch, 
Myriads  of  messengers  aflame  with  Thee 
To  darkest  places  bearing  light  divine! 

As  did  one  soul,  whom  here  I  fain  would  sing, 
For  here  in  youth  his  gentle  spirit  took 
New  fire  from  Wesley's  glow. 

How  oft  have  I, 

A  little  child,  hearkened  my  father's  voice 
Preaching  the  Word  in  country  homes  remote, 
Or  wayside  schools,  where  only  two  or  three 
Were  gathered.     Lo,  again  that  voice  I  hear, 
Like  Wesley's,  raised  in  those  sweet,  fervent  hymns 
Made  sacred  by  how  many  saints  of  God 
Who  breathed  their  souls  out  on  the  well-loved  tones. 
Again  I  see  those  circling,  eager  faces; 
I  hear  once  more  the  solemn-urging  words 
That  tell  the  things  of  God  in  simple  phrase; 
Again  the  deep-voiced,  reverent  prayer  ascends, 
Bringing  to  the  still  summer  afternoon 
A  sense  of  the  eternal.    As  he  preached 
He  lived;  unselfish,  famelessly  heroic. 
For  even  in  mid-career,  with  life  still  full, 
His  was  the  glorious  privilege  and  choice 
Deliberately  to  give  that  life  away 
In  succor  of  the  suffering;  for  he  knew 
No  rule  but  duty,  no  reward  but  Christ. 

Increase  Thy  prophets,  Lord !  give  strength  to  smite 
Shame  to  the  heart  of  luxury  and  sloth ! 
Give  them  the  yearning  after  human  souls 
That  burned  in  Wesley's  breast!   Through  them,  Great  God! 
Teach  poverty  it  may  be  rich  in  Thee; 
Teach  riches  the  true  wealth  of  Thine  own  spirit. 
To  our  loved  land,  Celestial  Purity ! 
Bring  back  the  meaning  of  those  ancient  words, — 
Not  lost  but  soiled,  and  darkly  disesteemed, — 
The  ever  sacred  names  of  husband,  wife, 
And  the  great  name  of  Love, — whereon  is  built 
The  temple  of  human  happiness  and  hope! 
Baptize  with  holy  wrath  Thy  prophets,  Lord ! 
By  them  purge  from  us  this  corruption  foul 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  127 

That  seizes  on  our  civic  governments, 

Crowns  the  corrupter  in  the  sight  of  men, 

And  makes  him  maker  of  laws,  and  honor's  source ! 

Help  us,  in  memory  of  the  sainted  dead, 
Help  us,  O  Heaven!  to  frame  a  nobler  state, 
In  nobler  lives  rededicate  to  Thee:  — 
Symbol  and  part  of  the  large  brotherhood 
Of  man  and  nations;  one  in  one  great  love, 
True  love  of  God,  which  is  the  love  of  man, 
In  sacrifice  and  mutual  service  shown. 

Let  kindle,  as  before,  O  Heavenly  Light ! 
New  messengers  of  righteousness,  and  hope, 
And  courage,  for  our  day !     So  shall  the  world 
That  ever,  surely,  climbs  to  Thy  desire 
Grow  swifter  toward  Thy  purpose  and  intent. 


TUESDAY  AFTERNOON, 
JUNE  30 


Commencement  3!  uncljcon 

When  the  hour  for  speaking  had  arrived,  President  Raymond 
introduced  as  the  toast-master  of  the  occasion  Mr.  Stephen  Henry 
Olin,  '66.  Mr.  Olin  was  greeted  with  long-continued  applause,  and 
in  taking  charge  of  the  exercises  spoke  as  follows : 


STEPHEN  HENRY 

TOAST-  MASTER 


I  AM  obliged  for  this  kind  welcome  and  in  need  of  it.  It  is 
always  a  serious  thing  to  be  a  toast-master,  but  it  is  still  more 
serious  to  be  a  toast-master  in  name  only  —  as  you  might  say  a 
toast-master  in  partibus  dbstinentium. 

These  serried  lines  of  faces  are  formidable  indeed.  You  are 
destitute,  as  the  New  York  Preachers'  Meeting  itself,  of  the 
charity  which  flows  from  the  juice  of  the  grape,  and  yet  you  are 
replete  with  calories, — not  merely  excessive  according  to  the 
recent  standard  set  up  for  the  Yale  athlete,  but  sufficient,  even 
by  Atwater's  prodigal  dietary,  to  benumb  the  brain  and  obscure 
the  moral  sense. 

A  bicentennial  celebration  is  a  fine  thing.  Only  the  most 
respectable  institutions  have  them.  Indeed,  there  is  a  well-known 
university  in  the  city  where  I  live  which  is  greatly  concerned 
about  a  sesquicentennial. 

We  are  not  met  here  in  praise  of  any  ordinary  man ;  not  one 
of  those  vague  and  uncertain  figures  in  clerical  garb  to  whom  at 
Cambridge  and  New  Haven  they  erect  statues.  (Laughter.) 
This  was  an  English  Tory,  who  could  appropriate  and  subscribe 
Samuel  Johnson's  views  of  the  American  Revolution,  and  yet 
there  are  seven  millions  of  Americans  who  are  proud  to  call 
themselves  his  followers.  He  lived  and  died  a  presbyter  in  the 
Church  of  England,  conjuring  his  disciples  not  to  separate  from 
it  or  from  each  other.  Yet  he  is  regarded  as  the  founder  of 

131 


132  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

eight  English  and  seventeen  American  sects,  some  of  them 
noted,  even  in  this  age  of  great  combinations,  for  the  efficiency 
of  their  machinery,  the  economy  of  their  working,  and  the  mag- 
nitude and  uniformity  of  their  output.  He  was  a  great  man.  I 
had  not  intended,  even  on  this  day  of  the  week,  to  rest  this 
proposition  upon  my  unsupported  assertion  j  but  as  I  listened 
last  night  to  that  admirable  discourse,  I  found  that  the  orator 
had  had  access  in  some  way  to  the  very  authorities  consulted  by 
me,  and  he  quoted  some  of  the  very  sentences  to  which  I  intended 
to  refer.  But,  after  all,  it  is  enough  to  say  that  even  so  fastidi- 
ous, so  just,  so  impartial,  so  impassive  a  critic  as  Winchester, 
spoke  of  Mr.  Wesley  in  terms  which  were,  on  the  whole,  I  think 
I  may  say,  favorable.  (Laughter.) 

There  is  no  need  to  praise  the  college  in  whose  honor  we  meet. 
In  it  we  celebrate  ourselves  —  that  part  of  ourselves  which  was 
fashioned  here,  and  by  reason  of  which  every  day  of  our  lives  is 
different  from  what  it  would  otherwise  have  been  —  and  that 
part  of  ourselves  which  we  left  here  long  ago,  the  dreams  and 
fancies,  the  ambitions  and  ideals  over  which  we  sentimentalize 
at  the  Commencement  season. 

There  is,  too,  our  corporate  or  vicarious  interest.  Some  of  us 
keep  a  kind  of  moral  bank  account  here,  against  which  we  draw 
wherever  we  are;  and  there  are  our  friends,  the  professors,  who 
are  engaged  (except  during  the  summer  vacation  and  septennial 
trips  to  Europe)  in  the  constant  public  practice  of  virtue  and 
wisdom.  We  delight  to  come  back  and  declare  an  annual  divi- 
dend of  these  fine  qualities.  Some  of  us  live  on  it  the  twelve- 
month through. 

But  in  spite  of  these  obvious  merits,  our  bicentenary  is  not 
perfect.  There  is  a  solution  of  continuity  in  it. 

Between  the  death  of  the  great  man  and  the  foundation  of  the 
beloved  college  there  is  a  great  gulf  fixed  —  a  period  of  forty 
years,  fuller  of  change  and  of  the  beginnings  of  change  than  any 
like  period  since  the  world  began. 

It  was  the  time  of  the  French  Revolution,  the  time  of  the 
migration  across  the  American  Continent,  of  the  steamboat,  the 
railroad,  the  telegraph,  the  cotton-gin,  the  power-press,  the 
sewing-machine.  It  was  the  time  when  Darwin  was  born,  and 
Huxley.  No  one  can  now  live  and  think  as  people  lived  and 
thought  before  that  time.  It  is  perhaps  not  surprising  that  men, 
finding  how  greatly  they  had  been  misinformed  about  everything 
this  side  the  Styx,  began  to  question  whether  there  might  not 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  133 

also  be  inaccuracies  in  some  of  the  guide  books  to  the  Seventh 
Heaven  and  the  Seventh  Hell.  I  have  even  heard  that  there  is  a 
doubt  as  to  the  precise  way  in  which  a  religious  editor  in  another 
world  will  recognize  a  bishop ! 

Across  that  gulf  we  cannot  go  to  Wesley,  and  if  he  should 
come  to  us  he  would  find  differences  which  would  make  demand 
upon  his  charity.  Perhaps  there  is  no  man  present  who  would 
quite  agree  with  his  opinions  about  ghosts  and  witches  and  the 
bad  spirits  who  thunder  in  the  storm  and  flash  in  the  meteor.  No 
one  could  possibly  hold  at  one  time  all  the  contradictory  beliefs 
which  the  logic  and  zeal  and  candor  of  Wesley  led  his  active  mind 
to  accept  during  a  long  life  of  changing  conditions.  Perhaps  there 
are  some  in  this  room  who  would  not  fully  accept  even  that  body 
of  doctrine  which  he  bequeathed  to  his  flock.  Dogma  is  a 
thing  limited  by  time  and  space,  so  that  if  you  live  long  enough 
or  travel  far  enough  you  can  find  every  formula  discredited. 
But  there  are  some  traits  of  character  about  which  it  may  almost 
be  said  that  they  are  respected  everywhere  and  always  and  by 
all:  Wesley  was  fearless  in  action  and  in  thought;  he  was 
frugal  and  generous ;  he  labored  for  others,  and  through  his 
long  life  every  day  he  did  the  thing  that  his  conscience  told 
him  to  do.  We  all  love  and  honor  those  our  friends  who,  under 
the  green  elms  of  Middletown,  are  living  just  such  lives  to-day. 
(Applause.)  Kamrnurrabi,  forty  centuries  ago,  gathering  the 
wisdom  of  an  immemorial  past  to  found  law  and  justice,  for  the 
good  of  his  people,  in  praise  of  the  Mighty  God,  Lord  of  Earth 
Spirits,  Lord  of  Earth  and  of  Heaven,  Foreteller  of  the  things 
that  will  be — Kammurrabi  would  have  known  how  to  honor 
such  a  man.  And  hereafter,  whatever  solutions  may  be  found  of 
the  problems  of  existence,  as  long  as  there  are  any  who,  un- 
daunted by  darkness  and  undazzled  by  light,  work  righteous- 
ness while  life  lasts,  so  long  will  there  be  reverence  for  the 
Spirit  which  animated  this  man  and  which  inspires  this  college. 
(Applause.) 

If  Mr.  Wesley  had  been  here  to-day  we  should  have  been  busy 
at  this  table  giving  an  account  of  our  stewardship,  and  justifying 
our  use  of  his  name.  His  experience  with  demoniacal  possession 
would  have  interpreted  to  him  the  class  cheers  from  the  gallery, 
but  it  would  not  have  been  easy  to  explain  the  present  state  of 
co-education  or  the  scores  of  the  Base  Ball  Nine  or  the  respira- 
tion calorimeter. 
9* 


134  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

With  what  pleasure  we  would  have  turned  from  these  and 
other  troubles,  and  said,  "  There  is  a  man  who  graduated  two 
and  sixty  years  ago.  He  became  a  very  eminent  lawyer;  he 
remained  a  devout  Christian.  In  the  community  where  he 
lives  and  the  church  where  he  worships  he  has  the  love  and 
respect  of  all.  He  has  come  back  year  by  year  to  aid  in  our 
councils  with  his  experience,  his  sagacity,  his  good-humor.  We 
have  given  him  such  honors  as  we  have  to  bestow,  but  they  are 
only  a  weak  symbol  of  the  entire  respect,  the  strong  affection  for 
him  which  fills  our  hearts." 

How  proud  we  should  have  been  —  how  proud  I  am  —  to  say  : 
This  is  Judge  Reynolds,  who  will  speak  for  the  Board  of  Trustees. 


JUDGE  GEORGE  GREENWOOD  EEYNOLDS 


MY  text  is  well  worn.  I  have  heard  of  it  before.  Perhaps  I 
may  impart  a  little  interest  to  it  by  specializing. 

This  is  Alumni  Day,  but  that  we  have  so  many  alumni,  that  we 
have  a  college  at  all,  is  and  has  been  from  the  first,  owing  largely 
to  the  labor  and  sacrifices  of  men  who  were  not  "  college  bred." 
And  so  I  beg  your  indulgence  for  a  few  moments  to  speak  more 
particularly  of  the  non-graduate  trustees.  I  make  no  apology  for 
calling  particular  attention  to  them.  I  have  long  felt  that  they 
are  entitled  to  our  special  praise  for  their  liberality  and  devotion. 
Perhaps  you  think  it  would  have  been  more  appropriate  if  one  of 
that  class  were  to  represent  them.  But  so  far  as  learning  is  con- 
cerned, tried  by  the  present  standards,  I  ought  to  be  reckoned  as 
a  non-graduate  myself. 

The  men  of  whom  I  am  speaking  have  been  generous  in  their 
gifts  to  bestow  upon  others  privileges  which  had  been  denied  to 
themselves. 

Religion,  I  think,  under  all  its  forms  and  modes  of  operation, 
naturally  seeks  progress  in  knowledge:  When  one  has  any  fair 
conception  of  his  duties,  and  his  relations  to  God  and  man,  how- 
ever deficient  he  may  be  in  education,  he  desires  a  broader  vision 
and  a  higher  intelligence  for  the  generation  that  is  to  come  after 
him.  As  to  Methodism,  as  Dr.  Kelly  showed  us  last  night,  it 
was  born  in  a  university.  The  scholarly  spirit  of  John  Wesley 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  135 

abides  in  it  yet,  and  the  most  unlettered  of  his  followers  believe 
in  a  liberal  education.  Ecclesiastically,  it  is  in  the  blood. 

So  it  came  about,  well  on  to  a  century  ago,  that  the  Methodist 
preachers  and  people  determined  to  have  a  college  in  this  part  of 
the  country ;  and  when,  providentially,  this  site,  an  ideal  one  for 
such  an  institution,  was  offered  with  the  two  original  buildings, 
which  I  trust  will  stand  here  to  oversee  the  erection  of  many  yet 
to  come,  the  foundation  was  laid,  and  Willbur  Fisk,  a  graduate  of 
Brown,  was  called  to  preside  over  its  fortunes.  The  man  and  the 
hour  had  met,  and  had  met  at  the  right  place,  on  the  border-laud 
between  New  England  and  the  Middle  States,  with  the  com- 
mingled intellectual  atmosphere  of  both  sections,  tempered  albeit 
by  elements  from  the  ardent  South  and  the  breezy  West,  and  not 
without  contributions  from  beyond  the  Northern  border. 

Pardon  me  for  a  moment  while  I  say,  in  the  presence  of  two 
very  eminent  presidents  of  two  very  great  universities,  and  re- 
membering some  very  great  men  who  succeeded  Dr.  Fisk,  that  I 
believe  no  greater  college  president  than  Willbur  Fisk  has  ever 
lived, —  that  is,  no  man  more  specially  adapted  to  just  that  posi- 
tion. This  may  be  the  partiality  of  an  admiring  student,  who 
had  just  emerged  from  a  country  home,  but  certainly  I  have  al- 
ways counted  it  among  my  greatest  privileges  that  the  first  part 
of  my  college  course  was  passed  under  his  administration.  It  was 
inspiration  for  a  lifetime. 

And  here  let  me  express  my  very  great  pleasure  in  seeing  with 
us  to-day  the  only  surviving  member  of  the  Faculty  of  that  day, 
that  fine  scholar  and  genial  friend,  Dr.  Willard  Martin  Rice,  who 
piloted  the  famous  class  of  '41  through  the  odes  of  Horace  and 
the  annals  of  Livy,  and  all  the  other  Latin  classics.  We  all  loved 
him  then,  and  now  that  we  fear  him  not,  we  love  him  all  the  more. 
He  is  true  and  loyal  to  Wesleyan,  although  he  holds  a  distin- 
guished position  in  a  great  denomination,  that  with  its  utmost 
faith  believes  in  Princeton,  as  we  all  do,  for  why  should  not  we 
believe  in  Princeton,  when  its  President  was  formerly  one  of  our 
professors  and  one  of  its  honored  graduates  is  now  a  member  of 
our  Faculty  ? 

The  time  I  have  spoken  of  was  the  day  of  small  gifts,  scant 
equipment,  small  numbers,  and  stalwart  men.  Since  then,  larger 
gifts  have  expanded  all  things.  Looking  back  over  three-quarters 
of  a  century  since  the  beginning,  we  can  mark  a  steady  progress, 
owing,  in  great  measure,  be  it  said,  to  the  men  who,  with  small 
advantages  of  education,  through  love  of  Wesleyan  and  the  cause 


136  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

it  represents,  placed  their  gifts  upon  this  altar  —  an  altar  as 
sacred  as  any,  anywhere  dedicated  to  the  service  of  God. 

It  was  in  the  nature  of  things  that  even  down  to  the  present, 
comparatively  few  of  our  graduates  should  have  become  affluent 
in  worldly  goods.  It  has  been  said  that  colleges  do  not  make  rich 
men,  but  rich  men  make  colleges.  This  is  partly  true,  and  only 
in  part.  No  money  can  make  a  college  in  a  day.  It  must  be  the 
growth  of  generations,  and  yet,  unless  the  means  of  expansion 
are  supplied,  there  cannot  be  much  growth.  While  Wesleyan  has 
not  —  not  yet  —  received  many  of  the  very  large  gifts  we  so  often 
hear  of  in  these  days  (so  often  that  it  is  getting  monotonous  to 
all  but  the  recipients),  it  has  all  along  its  history  been  generously 
assisted,  considering  the  ability  of  its  founders  and  friends. 

Let  me  specify  a  very  few  of  those  friends  not  numbered 
among  its  graduates — mostly,  among  its  trustees.  And  first  let 
us  recall  Rev.  Laban  Clark,  who,  I  think,  may  be  credited,  largely 
at  any  rate,  with  the  original  conception  of  taking  over  Captain 
Partridge's  Military  Academy  and  founding  the  first  Wesleyan 
University  (the  name  is  legion  now).  He  was  an  old-fashioned, 
plain  Methodist  preacher  and  presiding  elder,  and  his  contribu- 
tion in  money  was  necessarily  small,  yet  liberal  for  his  means ; 
but  with  it  he  gave  much  of  his  life.  I  see  by  the  record  he  was 
a  member  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  for  thirty-seven  years,  and  all 
that  time  its  president.  For  six  months  of  my  time  in  college, 
I  ate  at  his  table,  and  I  know  that  Wesleyan  was  in  his  mind  and 
on  his  heart  and  in  his  prayers.  This  man  is  always  worthy  to 
be  mentioned  at  the  head  of  our  list.  Heman  Bangs  was  with 
him  in  sympathy  and  in  labors. 

A  little  later,  two  remarkable  men  seem  coupled  in  our  minds 
—  Isaac  Rich  and  Daniel  Drew.  I  well  remember  with  what  zest 
they  attended  our  commencements  and  encouraged  and  some- 
times fulfilled  our  hopes,  and  I  shall  never  forget  the  note  of 
triumph  with  which  on  one  occasion  President  Cummin gs,  after 
an  afternoon's  session  with  them,  announced  to  an  alumni  gath- 
ering that  the  future  of  Wesleyan  University  was  secure.  Both 
of  them  did  more  in  other  directions,  but  let  us  never  forget 
what  they  did  for  us.  Isaac  Rich  knew  about  the  treasures  of 
the  sea,  but  was  probably  not  well  versed  in  books,  yet  he  built 
here  his  own  memorial  in  a  beautiful  home  for  all  the  treasures 
we  have  and  hope  to  have  in  that  kind.  He  had  evidently  studied 
his  New  Testament  and  learned  to  perpetuate  the  miracle  of 
plucking  tribute  money  from  the  fish's  mouth.  As  for  Daniel 


FAYEBWEATHER  GYMNASIUM 


JUDD  HALL 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  137 

Drew,  it  was  never  said  of  him  that  much  learning  had  made 
him  mad,  but  he  was  said  to  be  a  Master  of  Arts  —  of  arts, 
which,  if  you  or  I  had  essayed,  we  should  have  been  mere  chil- 
dren —  "  infants  crying  in  the  night,  and  with  no  language  but 
a  cry:"  Had  it  not  been  that  misfortunes  overtook  him  and 
another  of  our  munificent  benefactors,  George  I.  Seney,  once  a 
student,  though  not  a  graduate  here,  we  should  have  been  richer 
than  we  are  to-day. 

Mr.  Seney,  besides  his  contributions  to  the  endowment,  estab- 
lished and  for  a  time  supported  the  prizes  given  in  his  name, 
designed  to  attract  students  here,  and  to  stimulate  them  while 
here,  by  adding  "  a  spur  to  prick  the  sides  of  their  intent." 

Jacob  Sleeper,  too,  will  be  remembered  as  one  who  in  times 
of  stress  contributed  annually  to  the  carrying  on  of  the  college. 
And  in  company  with  him  should  be  mentioned  Andrew  V. 
Stout,  who,  besides  other  contributions,  gave  $40,000  for  the  en- 
dowment of  the  presidential  chair. 

Then  there  were  those  princely  men,  the  Hoyt  brothers —  Wil- 
iam,  Oliver,  and  Mark  —  large-hearted  and  true  as  steel,  who  in 
the  midst  of  large  affairs  carried  to  the  end  of  their  lives  a  warm 
affection,  evinced  by  many  bounties,  for  Wesleyan  University. 
What  should  we  have  done,  what  could  we  have  done  without 
them  ?  Remember,  too,  it  was  to  their  watchful  care  and  warm 
interest  that  we  owed  our  place  in  the  Fayerweather  will,  of  such 
very  great  importance  to  us. 

Let  us  not  forget  to  mention  another,  who  was  neither  a  grad- 
uate nor  a  trustee,  but  who  studied  here  two  years  and  went  to 
Princeton  to  complete  his  course  on  account  of  certain  advan- 
tages, in  physical  science  and  especially  in  biology,  which  he 
could  enjoy  there.  I  mean  Dr.  Daniel  Ayres,  the  founder  of  the 
Ay  res  prize.  Excuse  the  personality  of  it,  but  after  several  con- 
versations on  the  subject  he  came  into  my  office  one  day  and  said 
he  considered  the  two  years  he  had  spent  here  as  the  foundation 
of  whatever  success  he  had  met  with  in  life,  and  was  anxious  that 
Wesleyan  should  be  able  to  give  to  others  the  opportunities  she 
could  not  give  to  him,  and  that  she  should  do  it  while  he  was 
alive  to  see  it ;  and  in  token  thereof,  in  addition  to  considerable 
gifts  which  he  had  previously  made,  he  laid  down  upon  my  desk 
a  quarter  of  a  million  in  cash  and  gilt-edged  securities. 

Time  would  fail  me  to  enumerate  all  our  worthies.  Amongst 
the  departed  there  are  many  whom  you  will  call  to  mind.  Two 
of  them,  Charles  C.  North  and  John  H.  Sessions,  are  perpetuated 


138  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

in  name  and  influence  in  our  present  Board.  We  should  not 
forget  either  the  names  of  Henry  J.  Baker  and  Joseph  S.  Spin- 
ney, who  aided  the  University  while  alive  and  remembered  it  in 
their  wills. 

A  single  word  outside  of  my  particular  subject.  No  man  can 
stand  upon  the  campus  and  look  upon  our  beautiful  buildings 
without  a  throb  of  love  and  gratitude  for  Orange  Judd,  who 
gave  so  generously  of  his  means  that  he  may  almost  be  said  to 
have  given  himself. 

Let  me  single  out  one  or  two  non-graduate  trustees  still  living, 
of  whom  we  are  forcibly  reminded  by  what  is  going  on  about 
this  campus  to-day.  A  little  over  a  year  ago  there  was  an  obsti- 
nate halt  in  the  subscriptions  for  Willbur  Fisk  Hall,  now  rapidly 
approaching  its  completion.  The  last  $50,000  was  not  provided 
for.  One  of  our  trustees  stood  ready  to  give  $25,000  if  any 
other  one  person  would  give  the  other  $25,000.  For  a  time  no- 
body took  up  the  challenge.  Here  was  a  deadlock,  when  along 
came  Frank  Jones  with  his  key  and  opened  the  door  to  success. 
Neither  was  this  his  first  benefaction. 

The  Scott  Physical  Laboratory,  given  by  one  of  the  trustees 
and  his  son,  the  foundation  of  which  has  just  been  laid,  is  a 
touching  proof  not  only  of  affection  for  a  noble  son  and  brother, 
but  of  the  breadth  and  generosity  of  that  affection,  which  takes 
in  the  Alma  Mater  which  conferred  upon  him  its  degree. 

Lastly,  let  me  name  one  worthy  to  be  remembered  this  day  in 
the  honorable  company  I  have  brought  before  you  —  a  man  who 
bore  a  name  dear  to  every  friend  and  alumnus  of  Wesleyan 
University,  and  which  has  been  intimately  associated  with  it  for 
fifty  years — Joseph  Van  Vleck,  but  lately  deceased.  He  had 
made  provision  for  an  observatory  also  much  needed  for  our 
equipment  —  a  gift  that  will  be  doubly  precious  to  us  on  account 
of  its  associations.  Ere  the  building  could  be  erected  and  the 
instruments  mounted,  he  has  become  a  discoverer  in  heavenly 
things  far  beyond  the  sweep  of  any  telescope — far  beyond  the 
ken  of  any  earthly  science. 

The  history  of  Wesleyan  University  has  been  a  history  of  gen- 
erous gifts  on  the  part  of  many,  perhaps  of  sacrifices  on  the  part 
of  more.  To-day,  as  He  did  nineteen  centuries  ago,  the  Master 
"  sits  over  against  the  treasury  and  beholds  how  the  people  cast 
money  into  the  treasury,"  but  whether  the  gifts  be  mites  or  mil- 
lions, if  they  be  according  to  the  ability  of  the  giver,  His  approval 
shall,  in  either  case,  make  the  deed  immortal. 


WESLEYAN  UNIVEESITY  139 

THE  TOAST-MASTER: 

The  next  toast  is  "  The  Religious  Press  and  Higher  Education." 
I  should  have  supposed  that  there  could  be  no  higher  education 
than  the  religious  press. 

Wesley,  with  all  his  preaching  and  disciplining  of  ministers 
and  direction  of  conferences,  found  time  to  establish  and  develop, 
if  indeed  he  did  not  invent,  the  religious  press.  It  would  be 
necessary  to  come  down  to  the  present  time  and  to  this  room  to 
find  another  who  used  it  with  so  much  copiousness,  with  such 
learning,  with  such  variety,  with  such  acceptance,  ex  cathedra  de 
omnibus  rebus  urbi  et  orbi.  If  a  deluge  should  submerge  the  intel- 
lectual accumulations  of  mankind,  none  of  us  would  deem  the 
disaster  irreparable  if  only  the  receding  waters  should  leave  Dr. 
Buckley  high  and  dry.  (Great  laughter.)  There  would  still  be  all 
manner  of  ideas  moving  through  the  air  and  along  the  earth  each 
after  its  kind.  There  would  still  be  all  manner  of  controversies 
and  arguments  pro  and  con,  two  and  two,  each  after  its  kind, — a 
stock  sufficient  to  replenish  the  earth. 

In  asking  Dr.  Buckley  to  respond  to  this  toast  I  appreciate  the 
emotions  of  Noah — the  sense  of  responsibility,  the  awful  joy,  when 
he  took  off  the  hatches  and  started  the  procession  down  the 
slopes  of  Ararat.  (Laughter.) 


THE  KEVEKEND  JAMES  MONEOE  BUCKLEY 


After  some  facetious  and  appreciative  remarks  in  response  to  com- 
pliments paid  him  by  the  toast-master,  Dr.  Buckley  said : 

T^IVE  years  after  the  toast-master's  renowned  father,  Dr. 
-*-  Stephen  H.  Olin,  was  graduated  from  Middlebury  College, 
the  second  weekly  Methodist  paper  in  the  world  was  established 
solely  to  give  him,  as  editor,  a  position  in  which  his  views,  already 
attracting  great  attention,  could  be  spread  before  the  Church. 
It  was  located  in  Charleston,  S.  C.,  and  named  the  "Wesleyan 
Journal."  Dr.  Olin,  however,  on  account  of  the  condition  of  his 
health,  was  not  able  to  accept  the  position,  and  the  paper  was  soon 
purchased  by  the  Methodist  Book  Concern  and  consolidated  with 
the  "  Christian  Advocate,"  established  one  year  later. 


140  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

The  earlier  colleges  in  this  country  —  Harvard,  Yale,  Prince- 
ton —  were  founded  without  the  aid  of  the  religious  press.  For 
then  there  was  no  daily  or  weekly  religious  press  known.  The 
"Puritan  Recorder"  was  founded  in  1816  and  helped  to  give  Oliver 
Wendell  Holmes  an  opportunity  to  satirize  the  location  of  And- 
over  Theological  Seminary.  When  this  institution  was  pro- 
jected there  was  but  one  Methodist  religious  weekly  in  existence. 
"Zion's  Herald"  had  been  founded  in  the  City  of  Boston  in  1823. 
But  the  "Christian  Advocate"  absorbed  it  or,  at  least,  there  was 
a  merger  (not  to  start  a  controversy  upon  it)  of  that  and  the 
Charleston  paper  previously  referred  to,  and  the  trinity  blazed 
out  with  the  tremendous  name  of  the  "Christian  Advocate  and 
Journal  and  Zion's  Herald." 

Without  that  paper,  according  to  Willbur  Fisk,  Wesleyan  Uni- 
versity would  not  have  been  founded  for  twenty  years.  The  early 
pages  of  the  "Christian  Advocate"  contain  his  appeals,  and  pri- 
vate letters  exist  in  which  he  declared  that,  unless  the  editor  of  the 
"  Christian  Advocate"  threw  the  weight  of  the  paper  in  favor  of 
the  projected  university, — such  were  the  peculiar  prejudices  of 
the  majority  of  people  against  higher  education, — it  would  be  im- 
possible to  establish  a  college  then.  Since  then  almost  everything 
that  has  ever  been  done  for  Wesleyan  has  been  first  exploited  in 
that  paper  and  in  "Zion's  Herald."  And  well  it  might  be.  The 
"Christian  Advocate"  is  seventy-seven  years  old,  and  more  than 
half  those  years  it  has  been  edited  by  alumni  of  Wesleyan.  Abel 
Stevens  was  an  undergraduate  of  this  institution,  and  Daniel 
Curry,  who  edited  the  paper  for  twelve  years,  was  an  alumnus  of 
the  class  of  1837. 

Boston  University,  by  the  acknowledgment  of  its  management 
at  the  time  of  the  twenty-fifth  anniversary  of  the  founding  of 
that  great  institution,  attributed  a  large  part  of  the  moral  and 
religious  influence  which  made  the  institution  possible  to  the 
work  of  "  Zion's  Herald."  Consider  its  editors :  the  accomplished 
Gilbert  Haven ;  Dr.  E.  O.  Haven,  a  man  of  unusual  talents,  over- 
shadowed by  the  peculiar  vivacity  and  genius  of  his  cousin ; 
Nelson  E.  Cobleigh  and  Bradford  K.  Peirce,  also  alumni  of  Wes- 
leyan ;  and  Abel  Stevens,  one  of  the  earlier  editors  of  "  Zion's 
Herald,"  where  his  gifts  were  so  manifested  as  to  lead  to  his 
election  to  the  editorship  of  the  "  Christian  Advocate." 

There  is  scarcely  a  subject  of  Methodist  interest  worth  talking 
about  that  has  not  depended  largely  or  entirely  (apart  from  the 
word  of  mouth)  upon  the  religious  press  Read  the  history  of  the 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  141 

establishment  of  Ohio  Wesleyan  University,  together  with  the 
history  of  other  institutions  under  the  control  of  the  church,  and 
it  will  show  the  position  and  weight  of  the  religious  press  with 
regard  to  higher  education. 

Milton  says  that  greatness  is  to  do  great  things ;  to  tell  how 
great  things  may  be  done;  or  to  describe  them  worthily  after 
they  have  been  done. 

The  religious  press  points  out  what  great  things  are  needful 
in  higher  education ;  its  editors  are  advised  of  the  views  of  presi- 
dents and  trustees.  It  shows  what  has  been  done  and  what  is 
being  done,  records  the  gifts  and  labors  of  benefactors,  and  makes 
them  the  means  of  stimulating  others  to  imitate  or  emulate  their 
deeds.  Comparatively  few  large  endowments  are  the  gifts  of 
men  who  inherited  large  wealth.  Whence  came  Carnegie,  Pea- 
body,  Slater,  Peter  Cooper,  and  all  the  great  captains  of  industry, 
commerce,  and  finance  ?  A  large  amount  of  what  has  been  given 
to  colleges  has  been  stimulated  by  the  press,  and  especially  by  the 
religious  press. 

The  religious  press  leads  people  to  give  money.  I  could  show 
that  one  of  Mr.  Seney's  great  gifts,  one  of  the  greatest,  came 
from  a  confession  from  an  unknown  man  published  in  the  "  Chris- 
tian Advocate";  and  Mr.  Seney  got  his  idea  of  giving  $480,000 
for  the  Brooklyn  Hospital  from  editorials  and  contributions  in 
the  "  Christian  Advocate." 

Where  but  in  the  religious  press  did  Judge  Reynolds  publish 
his  noble  appeal  for  Wesleyan  University, — a  far  more  impress- 
ive document  than  a  letter  from  bishop,  minister,  or  editor, — 
where  but  in  the  "  Christian  Advocate"?  When  the  judge  comes 
forward  to  do  that,  men  say,  here  is  a  man  of  experience,  a 
lawyer,  a  judge;  and  business  men  take  his  opinions  and  rely 
upon  them. 

It  is  the  opinion  of  some  that  the  influence  of  the  religious 
press  is  waning.  This  is  an  error.  If  the  religious  press  keeps 
abreast  of  the  times  in  Church  and  State  without  lowering  itself 
by  coarseness,  extravagance,  or  the  ignoring  of  religion ;  advo- 
cates free  speech,  and  furnishes  a  forum  for  it,  using  the  editorial 
columns  to  support  morality,  religion,  philanthropy,  patriotism, 
and  both  popular  and  higher  education,  it  has  so  great  an  in- 
fluence as  to  make  a  conscientious  editor  stagger  under  the  re- 
sponsibility. 

It  influences  the  ministry,  who  have  direct  access  to  the  people; 
fathers,  and  especially  mothers,  who  have  ideals  for  their  children; 


142  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

the  connection  of  which  with  education  is  intimate.  Thus  it 
leads  its  constituency  to  swell  endowments,  contribute  to  improve- 
ments, and,  what  is  equally,  if  not  more  than  equally,  important, 
to  send  their  children  to  college.  Besides  this,  it  brings  before 
young  people  who  have  to  make  their  own  way  the  need  of  and 
the  facilities  for  a  thorough  education. 

Before  sitting  down,  Dr.  Buckley  gave  some  illustrative  in- 
cidents, and  pledged  the  support  of  the  paper  he  edited  to 
Wesleyan  University  in  its  contemplated  "  forward  movement." 

THE  TOAST-MASTER  : 

"The  young  Alumni"  nowadays  speak  for  the  Alumni.  I  do 
not  know  the  exact  point  in  time  after  which  all  who  graduate 
are  perennially  "young"  Alumni.  Some  find  in  the  possession 
of  a  class  cheer  a  test  of  youth,  which  accounts  for  the-  ap- 
pearance a  few  minutes  ago  of  the  venerable  class  of  1863  dis- 
guised in  such  a  cheer!  Perhaps  the  line  of  cleavage  was  in 
the  early  seventies  when  John  Eustis  was  more  talked  about 
than  John  "Wesley !  (I  hope  to  celebrate  his  bicentennial,  too.) 
That  was  the  time  when  intercollegiate  sports  began  and  Wes- 
leyan graduates,  perhaps  encouraged  by  undergraduate  successes, 
went  more  and  more  out  of  the  ministry  and  such  protected  call- 
ings, into  occupations  free  to  all  the  world.  I  should  like  to  say 
how  well  in  my  neighborhood  they  have  succeeded  —  how  they 
make  their  way  in  the  professions  and  in  business  and  in  the  pub- 
lic service ;  but  any  language  of  mine  would  seem  cold  and  color- 
less. The  "young"  Alumni  are  here  to  speak  for  themselves. 
Like  Obadiah's  prophets  they  have  been  fed  by  fifty  in  a  cage. 
They  have  swarmed  upstairs  and  wait  impatient  to  hear  their 
favorite  speaker,  of  whose  oratory  they  never  tire. 

Mr.  William  D.  Leonard  of  '78  will  answer  for  the  Alumni. 


WILLIAM  DAY  LEONARD 


MR.  TOAST-MASTER,  has  Dr.  Buckley  said  his  last  word  ? 
Then  let  me  say  that  I  have  for  him  a  word  of  praise,  and 
another  which  may  be  taken  as  a  word  of  praise. 
First,  after  suggesting  to  Professor  Rice  that  all  the  speakers 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  143 

to-day  be  limited  to  ten  minutes,  he  spoke  for  only  seventeen ; 
and  that  I  consider  is  doing  very  well, — for  Dr.  Buckley. 

Second,  he  has  absolutely  emasculated  my  toast,  for  in  an  after- 
dinner  speech  last  winter  at  our  annual  dinner  (those  of  you  who 
were  present  can  never  forget  it,  and  those  who  were  absent  have 
my  heartiest  —  I  did  not  say  congratulations  —  shall  I  say  sym- 
pathy !),  in  a  brief  sixty  or  seventy  minutes  he  gave  an  ency- 
clopedic review  of  the  history  of  every  alumnus  who  has  es- 
caped the  obscurity  most  of  us  deserve,  flashing  the  illuminating 
lightning  of  his  wit  alike  upon  the  just  and  unjust,  "skidding" 
his  part  unblushingly,  and  felicitating  himself  upon  the  difference 
between  himself  and  other  men  who  read  their  speeches.  So 
comprehensive  was  his  work  that  he  has  left  little  indeed  for  me 
to  say. 

You  notice  that  I  do  not  venture  to  measure  swords  with  your 
gifted  toast-master.  His  blade  is  too  keen,  and  he  is  too  practiced 
a  hand  at  the  game  for  me;  so  I  must  submit  to  the  "  slings  and 
arrows  of  outrageous "  toastmastership  with  what  philosophy  I 
may. 

I  should  like  to  dwell,  for  an  instant,  on  one  of  Wesleyan's 
great  alumni,  Dr.  Stephen  Olin,  that  prince  among  men,  a  giant 
of  the  good  old  times;  and,  asking  you  to  look  "  on  that  picture, 
then  on  this,"  say  a  few  words  anent  modern  degeneracy  and  the 
superiority  of  those  days ;  but  time  forbids,  for  I  am  limited  to 
ten  minutes.  If  I  use  one  more,  may  I  be  compelled  to  listen  to 
a  sophomore  oration,  or  attend  an  oral  examination. 

You  have  heard  something  of  Mr.  Wesley,  I  take  it,  this 
past  week.  I  count  myself  fortunate  to  have  heard  Professor 
Winchester's  eloquent  and  suggestive  oration  last  night.  I  do 
not  call  it  surprising,  because  we  always  expect  something  fine 
from  Professor  Winchester,  and  are  never  disappointed, —  but  it 
was  suggestive.  You  remember  that  the  orator  said  that,  above 
all  things,  Wesley  was  a  gentleman.  Then  he  told  us  how,  on 
one  occasion,  Mr.  Wesley,  while  travelling  in  a  public  coach,  held 
in  his  lap  a  very  large  gentlewoman.  That  remark  suggested 
the  following  query,  viz.:  How  large  a  gentlewoman  can  a  man 
hold  in  his  lap  in  a  street  car  to-day,  and  still  be  called  a  gentle- 
man? 

The  orator  also  said  that  Mr.  Wesley  enjoyed  his  Plato,  not 
only  with  his  feet  on  the  fender,  but  with  his  feet  in  the  stirrups ; 
and  Dr.  McDowell  irreverently  whispered  that  Mr.  Wesley  prob- 
ably used  a  "  pony." 


144  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

John  B.  Wesley  (nay,  do  not  laugh,  that  was  his  name)  was, 
colloquially  yet  respectfully  speaking,  a  wise  guy.  He  had  his 
natal  day  so  arranged  that  his  bicentennial  should  be  synchronous 
with  the  twenty-fifth  anniversary  of  the  Class  of  '78.  John  B. 
Wesley  is  like  our  George  H.  Washington  in  his  wisdom,  as  in 
other  respects.  Both  are  pictured  to  us  with  massive  brows 
crowned  by  a  hat  of  a  style  now  happily  obsolete,  wearing  a 
collar  too  decollete  to  be  quite  recherche  and  a  smile  of  mar- 
vellous breadth.  Both  succeeded  admirably,  at  little  or  no 
expense,  in  self-advertisement,  and  in  having  things  named 
after  them.  John  had  denominations,  churches,  hymns,  and 
colleges.  George  had  states,  cities,  and  pies.  Both  were  ubiqui- 
tous. John  Wesley  had  the  world  for  a  parish.  George  Wash- 
ington had  a  continent  for  a  battle-ground,  and  every  house  alive 
in  his  day  for  a  headquarters. 

How  different  their  early  lives  from  ours  at  Wesleyan!  At 
Charterhouse,  whose  headmaster  was  "passing  rich"  on  twenty 
pounds  a  year,  classes  met  at  six  in  winter  in  a  room  without 
fires  or  windows ;  yet  I  fancy  John  Wesley's  fingers  were  no 
stiffer  and  his  lips  no  bluer  than  were  mine  a  quarter  century 
ago  in  chapel,  the  days  Raymond  overslept  and  the  furnace 
fire  went  out.  Young  George  Washington  dropped  his  chain 
and  transit  to  drop  a  redskin ;  and  spent  his  vacation  hunting 
—  them.  Dan  Robertson  and  I  have  dropped  our  letters  climb- 
ing from  the  post-office  to  drop  a  snowballing  townie ;  and  took 
part  in  hunting,  though  as  huntees  rather  than  hunters. 

John  Wesley's  face  appears  on  Epworth  League  leaflets  and 
other  goodly  papers;  George  Washington's  —  where  I'd  like  to 
lay  my  hands, — on  nice,  large,  fat,  green  bank-notes. 

But  I  wander.  I  am  to  speak  of  the  Alumni.  Neither  of 
them  was  an  alumnus  of  Wesleyan  University.  I  do  not  cherish 
that  against  them,  nor  would  I  for  that  reason  withhold  from 
either  the  meed  of  praise  that  is  his.  I  don't  exactly  know  what 
a  meed  is,  but  whatever  it  is,  let  them  have  it. 

Having  thus  briefly  told  you  some  things  about  some  obscure 
people  who  were  not  alumni,  let  me  say  just  a  word  for  some 
who  are  —  say  for '78 — which  is  holding  its  reunion  this  year. 
It  was,  by  universal  consent,  the  greatest  class  in  many  respects 
ever  graduated  from  Wesleyan — that  year.  It  is  now  approach- 
ing middle  age,  and  can  fairly,  perhaps,  be  taken  as  a  type  of  the 
Alumni. 

Though  only  twenty-five  years  have  passed  since  we  graduated, 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  145 

a  quarter  of  a  century  has  rolled  along,  and  over  some.    I  pause 
to  drop  a  tear  for  the  few 

Whom  competition  has  knocked  off  creation 
Like  a  gin-fountain  smashed  by  Carrie  Nation. 

The  prize-fight  of  life  has  proved  a  losing  one  for  some.      As 
some  poet  says : 

For  when  I  pushed  my  opponent  to  the  rope, 
Fate  manned  the  ambulance  and  dragged  him  in, 

Massaged  his  lamps  with  fragrant  drug  store  dope, 
And  coughed  up  loops  of  kindergarten  chin. 

She  blew  her  whistle,  piped  for  the  patrol, 
Then  threw  a  glance  that  tommyhawked  my  soul. 

O  tempora  !  O  mores !     Our  very  sports  have  changed.    Omar 
knew  it  when  he  said: 

Think,  in  the  Sad  Four  Hundred's  gilded  HaUs, 
Whose  endless  Leisure  e'en  Themselves  appalls, 

How  Ping  Pong  raged  so  high,  then  faded  out 
To  those  Far  Suburbs  that  still  chase  its  Balls. 


And  by  the  way,  that  tent-maker  wrote  for  posterity  for  fair  — 
for  did  he  not  have  the  Sage  of  Princeton  in  view  when  he  wrote : 

In  that  inverted  bowl  which  holds  my  brain, 
The  bee,  unbidden,  hums  his  soft  refrain ; 

Then,  tired  of  egotistic  surfeiting, 
Sinks  to  innocuous  desuetude  again. 

But  I  wander  again. 

Some  of  our  men  have  achieved  families,  and  a  few,  who  mar- 
ried widows,  have  had  families  thrust  upon  them.  Some  have 
been  willing  to  dispense  with  the  necessaries  of  life,  content 
if  they  could  secure  its  luxuries.  On  the  whole,  we  wish  neither 
to  scold  Providence,  nor  hurl  bouquets  at  ourselves.  Few  have 
reason  to  be  so  chesty  that  our  shirt-studs  won't  hold ;  none  of  us 
need  fear  getting  out  of  our  stained-glass  pose,  or  jostling  our 
halos  out  of  place ;  all  of  us,  up  to  date,  have  a  few  holes  left  to 
be  punched  out  of  our  meal  tickets. 

But  if  I  don't  stop,  I  '11  wander  again. 

Seriously  and  lastly : 

Those  who  have  left  her  love  Wesleyan  and  cherish  as  priceless 
possessions  the  pleasures  of  their  life  here. 
10 


146  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

If  we  were  as  rich  in  money  as  in  love  for  Wesley  an,  the  endow- 
ment would  be  completed,  aye,  and  doubled. 

If  any  of  Wesleyan's  Alumni  have  gained  honors,  fill  high 
positions,  do  honest,  valuable  work  in  that  sphere  of  life  in 
which  God  has  placed  them — and  their  names  are  numerous  and 
well  known  to  you — I  believe  such  will,  with  sincerity  and  una- 
nimity, say  they  owe  all  they  are  to  their  dear  old  Alma  Mater, 
Wesley  an. 

THE  TOAST-MASTER: 

As  a  son  of  Wesleyan  and  a  distinguished  representative  of  the 
great  Southern  branch  of  American  Methodism,  Bishop  Hendrix 
is  welcome  here  to-day. 

He  will  speak  of  The  Catholicity  of  Culture. 


BISHOP  EUGENE  EUSSELL  HENDEIX 


IT  is  a  peculiar  pleasure  to  be  present  on  this  bicentenary  of 
the  birth  of  John  Wesley,  so  gloriously  celebrated  by  this 
noble  institution,  and  as  a  contribution  to  the  joy  of  the  occasion 
I  have  brought  with  me  something  that  may  interest  this  distin- 
guished body  of  Alumni  who  so  long  have  borne  the  name  of 
Wesley,  something  that  identifies  him  peculiarly  with  our  Ameri- 
can soil.  It  became  my  happy  privilege  some  years  ago,  through 
the  kind  offices  of  the  editor  of  the  "London  Quarterly,"  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Watkinson,  to  be  brought  into  such  social  relations  that  I  was 
able,  by  purchase,  to  secure  the  original  manuscript  diary  of  John 
Wesley,  which  he  kept  in  this  country  in  those  eventful  years, 
1736-37.  This  you  may  have  the  privilege  of  examining  at  the 
close  of  the  banquet.  And  it  is  that  catholic-minded  man  that 
suggested  to  my  mind  the  special  theme  of  the  toast,  "The 
Catholicity  of  Culture."  Mr.  Wesley,  you  will  remember,  wrote  a 
remarkable  discourse  on  the  catholic-minded  man,  that  was  a 
revelation  of  his  own  wonderful  catholicity  of  spirit  which  has 
given  type  and  character  to  Methodism  the  world  round.  We  are 
not  celebrating  to-day  in  this  country  the  birth  of  a  man  perhaps 
more  gifted  naturally  than  John  Wesley,  a  man  of  a  very  philo- 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  147 

sophical  cast  of  mind,  and  a  man  like  Wesley,  of  wonderful  in- 
dustry and  of  large  intellectual  power,  Jonathan  Edwards,  who 
was  born  the  same  year.  The  points  of  differentiation  are  largely 
found  in  this  statement  which  I  make :  The  world  of  Edwards  was 
a  narrow  one  in  life  and  in  death ;  the  wonderful  catholicity  of 
Wesley  has  made  him  the  property  of  the  world,  living  and  dead. 
And  it  is  that  fact  that  attracts  all  eyes ;  for  catholic-minded  men, 
like  perfect  portraits,  belong  to  all  who  look  upon  them,  as  they 
seem  to  turn  with  open  eyes  to  every  point  of  view.  So  it  was 
Wesley's  catholicity  of  mind  that  gave  him  his  position  at  the 
University  of  Oxford,  and  later,  when  he  was  wont,  one  evening 
in  every  month,  to  have  a  meeting  where  was  read  what  was 
done  by  other  religious  societies  the  world  over.  That  led  him  to 
edit  books  from  every  source,  Catholic,  Quaker,  Lutheran,  Scotch 
Presbyterian,  Unitarian,  so  that  his  followers  might  be  possessed 
of  the  best.  He  gave  his  impress  and  stamp  to  universal  Metho- 
dism, and  we  should  not  be  worthy  sous  of  John  Wesley  if  we 
were  not  able  to  put  ourselves  in  the  place  of  others.  That  was 
a  wonderful  prayer  of  Paul,  that  we  might  be  able  to  comprehend 
with  all  saints  what  is  the  length  and  depth  and  height,  and  to 
know  the  love  of  God ;  for  he  who  does  not  comprehend  with  all 
saints  does  not  comprehend  at  all. 

I  like  another  word  than  that  word  culture,  a  word  which  has 
enriched  it.  It  is  its  old  equivalent —  humanity.  In  a  conversa- 
tion with  the  distinguished  professor,  Dr.  Ramsey  of  Aberdeen, 
he  told  me  that  he  was  the  professor  of  the  chair  of  Humanity, 
and  that  it  was  the  perpetuation  of  the  old  name  for  culture 
when  the  knowledge  of  human  letters  was  distinguished  from 
the  knowledge  of  divine  letters,  and  that  men  referred  it  to  the 
life  and  literature  and  whole  history  of  a  people,  particularly  of 
the  Greek  and  Roman  peoples;  and  that  this  idea  of  humanity 
was  really  the  original  and  fundamental  idea  of  culture  itself, 
the  ability  to  put  one's  self  in  another's  place.  It  is  true  we 
have  somewhat  departed  from  the  use  of  the  word  humanity, 
and  in  departing  from  it  we  have  forgotten  the  essential  idea  of 
culture,  or  the  ability  to  put  one's  self  in  another  man's  place, 
to  get  at  his  point  of  view,  and  so  to  be  brought  into  sympathy 
with  his  life,  his  history,  his  whole  mental  habit.  That  is  what 
makes  the  cultivated  man,  whether  or  not  he  be  a  college  gradu- 
ate; and  it  has  this  meaning,  the  meaning  of  culture  in  that 
sense,  because  the  cultured  man  is  a  man  of  humanity  who  has 
broad  catholicity.  Such  men  have  made  possible  everything  that 


148  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

is  great  and  worthy  to-day  in  our  American  history  as  in  the 
history  of  European  nations. 

It  was  my  joy  to  hear  Lord  Dartmouth  say  that  his  great  an- 
cestor, the  "  one  who  wore  a  coronet  and  prayed,"  the  colonial 
secretary  of  George  the  Third,  retained  his  place  in  the  king's 
cabinet  in  order  to  modify  his  majesty's  views  and  actions  toward 
the  American  colonies,  and  in  order  to  get  before  his  majesty  an- 
other point  of  view.  Do  you  wonder  that  when  that  secretary's 
portrait  came  over  to  this  country  to  be  presented  to  Dartmouth 
College,  a  nation  that  honored  him  for  his  catholicity  asked  that 
his  portrait  be  left  in  New  York  city  with  that  of  Washington 
and  Franklin  in  order  to  show  their  respect.  When  such  a  man 
is  honored  it  is  due  to  the  fact  that  he  had  ability  to  look  at 
other  nations  from  their  standpoint  and  even  put  himself  in 
their  place,  without  any  compromise  of  principle. 

And  now  as  I  look  at  our  country  I  do  not  believe  we  should 
have  been  a  nation  if  we  had  not  had  men  at  the  formation  of 
the  national  constitution  of  just  such  culture, —  Hamilton,  Jeffer- 
son, Madison,  and  the  Quincys.  These  were  the  men  that  recog- 
nized that  there  could  be  formed  no  constitution  hard  and  fast 
that  should  represent  the  full  views  of  all.  It  was  a  compromise, 
and  it  took  broad-minded  men  to  effect  a  compromise.  When 
certain  measures  were  disapproved  by  Washington,  he  said,  "  It 
is  too  probable  that  no  plan  we  propose  will  be  adopted.  Per- 
haps another  dreadful  conflict  is  to  be  sustained.  If,  to  please 
the  people,  we  offer  what  we  ourselves  disapprove,  how  can  we 
defend  our  work  ?  Let  us  raise  a  standard  to  which  the  wise  and 
honest  can  repair ;  the  event  is  in  the  hand  of  God." 

It  was  thus  that  these  men  of  broad  catholicity  gave  us  our 
Constitution  even  with  a  comprehensiveness  which  admitted  of 
differences  of  construction,  and  so  made  possible  a  government 
at  all  at  the  time  of  our  greatest  national  peril,  when  the  absence 
of  pressure  from  without  left  us  without  the  necessary  bond  of 
cohesiveness. 

Now,  men  who  look  at  the  matter  from  that  historic  stand- 
point are  broad  enough  to  see  that  in  the  endeavor  to  interpret 
the  constitution,  even  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  there  should  be 
also  this  generous  broad-mindedness,  this  ability  to  put  one's  self 
at  another's  point  of  view.  I  honor  Charles  Sumner,  that  schol- 
arly senator  of  Massachusetts,  for  the  broad  views  he  had  of  other 
nations  when  he  proposed  to  strike  from  our  battle  flags  the 
names  of  those  battles  that  would  perpetuate  the  memory  of  civil 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  149 

strife.  He  found  an  answering  voice  in  one  who  afterward  be- 
came a  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court,  Judge  Lamar,  one  of  the 
most  gifted  men  this  nation  ever  had.  Each  was  misunderstood 
by  narrow-minded  men  in  his  own  section,  but  each  is  better 
understood  and  honored  by  the  whole  nation  to-day.  It  was  what 
catholic-minded  men  dared  do  because  true  culture  prompted 
that  which  humanity  required.  I  mention  these  honored  names 
to-day  because  they  could  look  from  another's  standpoint. 

Now,  we  have  been  searching  ever  since  the  declaration  of  war 
between  Spain  and  America  for  heroes.  We  have  been  making 
them  and  unmaking  them.  We  have  seen  the  sawdust  run  out  of 
our  hand-made  heroes  almost  before  we  could  put  it  in,  and  some 
could  not  open  their  mouths  without  a  volcanic  explosion  of  saw- 
dust. I  will  tell  you  who,  to  my  mind,  are  the  heroes  of  the 
Spanish- American  war.  One  was  brave  Admiral  Philip,  a  man 
whose  record  for  courage  was  uniform,  consistent,  and  who  was 
broad-minded  enough, -in  the  midst  of  the  victory  that  crowned 
our  arms  on  the  glorious  Fourth  of  July  at  Santiago,  when  his 
marines  were  shouting  out  their  joy,  and  catholic-minded  enough 
to  say,  "  Don't  cheer,  men ;  the  poor  devils  are  dying."  And  fol- 
lowing that  great  victory  with  the  full  force  of  his  religious  na- 
ture he  said,  "  Men,  for  myself  I  feel  like  uncovering  and  giving 
thanks  to  Almighty  God,  and  all  you  who  feel  likewise  lift  your 
caps."  And  do  you  wonder  that,  following  that  historic  prayer 
of  thanksgiving,  officers  and  men  swung  their  caps  in  honor  of 
their  brave  and  humane  commander1?  Now,  on  the  Spanish  side 
the  hero  was  Admiral  Cervera,  the  man  who  took  by  the  hand  the 
brave  young  man  that  dared  to  sink  the  Merrimac  in  the  harbor, 
sending  back  tidings  of  his  safety,  and  who  when  the  war  closed 
showed  himself  broad-minded,  able  to  look  from  another's  stand- 
point. 

Now,  my  friends  of  this  great  institution,  I  want  to  tell  you  to- 
day from  my  standpoint,  as  the  result  of  the  broad  culture  that  is 
developing  all  through  the  common  country  where  my  duties  call 
me  (for  they  have  called  me  to  every  State  and  Territory  except 
Alaska,  and  I  have  skirted  that  for  several  hours),  that  my  im- 
pression is  that  this  nation,  as  never  before  in  its  history,  is  one ; 
and  for  this  reason,  because  of  the  cultured,  broad-minded  men 
who  are  able  to  look  at  matters  from  another's  standpoint.  The 
far-off  gun  at  Manila  Bay  made  us  again  a  united  people.  The 
Stars  and  Stripes  do  not  belong  to  you  north  of  Mason  and 
Dixon's  line;  they  belong  to  us  all.  And  all  through  that  great 
10* 


150  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

South  that  I  represent  there  are  as  many  swords  to  flash  as 
north  of  that  line  in  defence  of  that  emblem  of  our  common  free- 
dom and  reunited  country.  (Great  applause.)  We  know  no  flag 
but  that  of  our  fathers,  the  battle  flag  of  Saratoga  and  of  York- 
town.  Its  broad  folds  are  ample  to  cover  the  entire  nation,  and 
its  glories  belong  alike  to  all.  It  has  been  borne  always  to  vic- 
tory, whether  on  land  or  sea,  when  a  united  people  have  upheld 
it.  Let  all  memories  perish  save  those  which  tell  of  our  triumphs 
against  a  common  foe.  Let  it  be  the  banner  of  broad-minded 
men,  full  of  sympathy  for  the  degraded  and  benighted  in  every 
part  of  our  great  national  domain,  on  which  the  sun  never  sets 
in  one  hemisphere  before  it  has  begun  to  illumine  our  distant 
islands  in  another  hemisphere.  With  fully  twenty  million  illiter- 
ates of  every  conceivable  color  the  broadest  Christian  charity  is 
challenged.  Shall  it  be  found  wanting! 

And  to  the  alumni  of  an  institution  of  higher  culture,  and  so 
representing  the  spirit  of  humanity,  may  I  make  this  appeal  ! 
Where  is  the  source  of  all  our  troubles  in  the  South,  on  your 
border,  everywhere  1  It  is  where  there  is  ignorance  and  prejudice 
and  narrowness.  Culture  is  needed  in  that  broad,  human  sense 
of  the  word,  to  bring  out  in  our  land  the  ability  to  look  upon  the 
rights  of  all  under  the  Constitution.  It  is  ignorance  that  lights 
the  torch.  It  is  narrowness  and  prejudice,  both  fatal  to  our 
greatness  as  a  country,  that  foster  crime  and  lawlessness.  Never 
was  there  a  truer  saying  than  this,  "  that  whatever  other  nations 
may  or  may  not  be  able  to  do  without  education,  a  republic  can- 
not exist  without  it."  It  is  absolutely  essential  for  the  govern- 
ment that  there  be  men  of  this  broad  catholicity  of  mind  which 
is  the  fruit  of  genuine  culture. 

And  now,  in  conclusion,  may  I  pay  this  word  of  tribute  ?  Din- 
ing some  time  since  with  a  cabinet  officer  thoroughly  familiar 
with  the  workings  of  our  government,  the  Hon.  Wilson  L.  Wil- 
son, who  later  died  while  president  of  Washington-Lee  Univer- 
sity, he  said:  "Do  you  know  that  Mr.  Lincoln's  favorite  tune, 
which  he  heard  during  the  war,  was  l Dixie'!  He  was  pas- 
sionately fond  of  it.  Again  and  again  during  the  war,  as  he 
heard  it  on  the  other  side,  he  said,  '  Oh,  that  we  had  that  tune ! 
I  do  not  wonder  that  the  Southern  people  are  fond  of  it' ;  and 
when  came  that  eventful  day  at  Appomattox  and  the  tidings  of 
Lee's  surrender  reached  Washington,  and  the  people  gathered  at 
the  White  House  to  serenade  the  great  man,  he  came  out  to  ad- 
dress them  in  words  without  bitterness,  and  said :  '  One  of  the 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  151 

happiest  results  of  this  war  is  that  we  have  captured  "  Dixie,"  and 
now  let  us  have  it/  and  all  Washington  sang  it."  Ah,  I  thought 
if  Father  Abraham  Lincoln  could  only  have  then  gone  South 
and  called  for  "Dixie,"  how  the  people  would  have  gathered 
around  that  noble  man, "  the  South's  best  friend/'  as  General  Lee 
called  him,  and  have  said:  "  Come,  Father  Abraham.  You  have 
long  desired  to  be  in  Dixie,  and  now  that  you  are  here  and  love 
our  song,  you  shall  live  for  us  as  a  people.  We  will  welcome 
you  as  our  President.  The  old  flag  shall  be  our  flag,  the  old  laws 
shall  be  our  laws."  Under  the  broad  catholicity  of  that  generous 
mind  and  heart  there  would  have  been  no  reconstruction  days, 
no  dark  and  bloody  chasm.  And  long  ere  it  came,  as  the  result 
of  another  war,  when  men  who  wore  the  gray  now  wore  the  blue 
and  once  more  fought  under  the  old  flag,  we  should  have  had 
what,  thank  God,  we  have  now,  to  our  great  joy,  a  reunited 
nation.  (Great  applause.) 

THE  TOAST-MASTER: 

The  next  toast  is  the  Sisterhood  of  American  Colleges,  and  it 
will  be  the  last,  since  Mr.  Carroll  D.  Wright  is  unfortunately 
unable  to  be  present. 

When  Wesley  was  born,  Harvard,  oldest  of  the  three  American 
colleges,  was  already  venerable.  To-day  none  of  her  four  hundred 
competitors  is  fuller  of  youthful  vigor. 

We  are  honored  by  the  presence  of  the  official  representative 
of  this  dignified  antiquity, —  who  has  been  a  spring  and  origin  of 
this  continuing  youth,  and  who  is  known  everywhere  as  a  type 
of  efficient  and  militant  scholarship, —  a  leader  of  teachers,  a 
teacher  of  the  leaders  of  men. 

I  ask  you  all  to  welcome  President  Eliot. 


PRESIDENT  CHAELES  WILLIAM  ELIOT 


MR.  TOAST-MASTER,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  I  am  charged  to 
present  to  you  the  greetings  of  your  sister  colleges  through- 
out our  broad  country.    It  is  a  large  commission,  but  a  very 
happy  one.    Those  of  us  who  can  look  back  over  the  last  thirty 
years  of  American  education  know  that  all  the  colleges  and  uni- 


152  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

versities  of  our  country  have  prospered  greatly  in  that  period. 
They  have  all  grown,  and  become  richer,  stronger,  and  more  in- 
fluential. All  alike,  the  large  and  the  small,  the  rural  and  the 
urban,  the  denominational  and  the  undenominational — all  alike, 
I  say,  have  thriven  and  increased  in  power.  When  one,  then,  is 
charged  to  salute  you  in  their  name,  and  bring  you  good  wishes 
and  brave  hopes  for  the  future,  how  fine  the  task,  how  welcome 
the  commission ! 

What  is  the  reason,  the  fundamental  reason,  for  this  increase 
in  the  wealth  and  influence  of  the  institutions  of  higher  education 
in  the  United  States?  I  say  "of  higher  education,"  recognizing 
the  fact  that  all  the  lower  grades  of  education  take  their  inspira- 
tion from  the  higher ;  and  believing  that  if  we  find  greater  power 
in  the  higher  grades  of  education,  it  means  that  throughout  the 
whole  organization  of  education  in  the  United  States  there  is 
breathing  a  new  spirit  and  a  new  life. 

Judge  Reynolds  quoted  the  saying  which  for  some  minds 
holds  the  secret  of  this  larger  influence  — "  Rich  men  make  col- 
leges." That  is  a  saying  which  I  profoundly  distrust.  The  ex- 
perience of  forty  years  in  college  administration  convinces  me 
that  this  saying  hides  a  dangerous  error  under  an  apparent  truth. 
Rich  men  cannot  make  colleges;  that  quite  transcends  their 
power.  They  can  help  other  men  to  make  colleges;  and  these 
other  men  are  generally  men  who  lead  the  intellectual  life,  have 
the  comprehensive,  catholic  spirit  of  which  Bishop  Hendrix  has 
just  so  forcibly  spoken,  practise  self-denial  for  love's  sake,  and 
see  clearly  the  essential  moral  conditions  of  continued  life  for 
free  institutions.  All  of  you  know  just  what  sort  of  man  has 
really  made  Wesleyan  University.  John  Wesley  himself  was  of 
the  type. 

The  second  phrase  of  the  quotation  of  which  Judge  Reynolds 
made  use  ran  thus:  "Colleges  do  not  make  rich  men."  This 
statement  is  completely  disproved  in  modern  experience.  Col- 
leges do  make  rich  men,  and  a  great  many  of  them.  It  is  a  demo- 
cratic tendency  to  think  too  much  of  the  mercenary  and  material- 
istic side  of  life  and  of  pecuniary  rewards;  the  experience  of 
Switzerland,  England,  and  the  United  States  demonstrates  this 
tendency.  We  democrats  are  too  much  inclined  in  all  walks  of 
life  to  think  of  material  success.  The  colleges  of  the  United 
States  do,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  train  many  men  for  success  in 
business ;  but  they  ought  to  use  their  influence  zealously  on  the 
other  side  of  life — to  make  the  spiritual  ideals  prevail.  They 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  153 

need  to  see  to  it  that  their  graduates  use  well  the  material  re- 
sources which  through  their  intellectual  training  they  gather. 
That  is  the  process  going  on  in  our  own  country  on  a  scale 
hitherto  unknown.  Through  their  education,  educated  men  be- 
come rich ;  and  then  through  institutions  of  education  they,  in 
these  days,  greatly  serve  the  republic.  They  must  do  so  to  justify 
their  own  privileges.  We  have  lately  read  that  it  is  impossible 
for  the  Southern  States  to  educate  their  own  ignorant  classes, — 
impossible  through  poverty, — not  through  lack  of  good  will,  but 
through  poverty.  It  is  for  the  educated  men  and  women  through- 
out our  country  to  go  to  the  rescue  of  that  large  region  with 
money,  service,  and  sympathy.  Bishop  Hendrix  is  right.  It  is 
ignorance,  prejudice,  and  injustice  which  imperil  free  institu- 
tions. 

Your  toast-master  intimated  that  our  founder  at  Harvard  was 
but  a  shadowy  figure,  and  that  he  has  only  an  ideal  representa- 
tion on  the  college  grounds ;  whereas  your  leader  was  a  vigorous, 
unique  character  that  played  a  great  part  in  the  world.  Well, 
here  is  a  wide  difference  between  John  Harvard  and  John  Wes- 
ley. John  Harvard  was  a  consumptive  youth  who  died  at  thirty- 
three,  having  performed  one  act  of  great  public  spirit.  Wesley 
lived  long,  travelled  far,  had  a  large  experience  and  strong  per- 
sonal influence,  and  left  behind  him  an  enduring  name  founded 
on  great  activities.  What  a  contrast !  I  suppose,  however,  that 
no  man  ever  lived  who  has  a  more  superb  single  monument  than 
John  Harvard.  But  behind  this  external  dissimilitude  lies  an 
immense  likeness  in  the  influence  of  these  two  men,  and  in  the 
type  of  character  and  of  professional  service  which  they  repre- 
sented. John  Harvard  was  a  Congregational  minister.  John 
Wesley  was  the  father  of  Methodism.  Is  there  no  kinship 
between  these  two  great  bodies  ?  Have  they  not  one  and  the 
same  ideal  —  freedom  f  Have  they  not  both  stood  for  civil  and 
religious  liberty?  Those  are  the  great  ideals,  and  those  the 
great  public  services  of  these  two  religious  denominations.  Their 
common  work  has  now  been  going  on  for  centuries,  and  is  to  go 
on  for  centuries  to  come ;  and  in  these  two  religious  bodies  will 
be  found  an  ever-growing  consanguinity  and  an  ever-increasing 
likeness,  and  at  the  bottom  lies  the  principle  that  Bishop  Hendrix 
so  eloquently  set  forth — non-conformist  catholicity. 

We  are  persuaded  that  it  is  to  public  education,  universal,  free, 
catholic,  that  free  institutions  must  look  for  their  perpetuation. 
We  are  persuaded  that  through  education  alone  can  come  the 


154  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

continuous  triumph  over  human  ills  and  woes.  Why  is  it  that 
we  see  in  these  days  such  enormous  benefactions  to  medicine? 
We  have  received  at  Harvard  University  within  two  years  more 
than  three  millions  of  dollars  to  be  spent  in  developing  a  new 
medical  establishment  for  research  and  instruction.  I  have  never 
seen  such  readiness  to  give.  What  is  the  motive  for  these  great 
gifts  and  many  like  them?  It  is  the  hope  of  doing  some  perpetual 
good  in  the  world,  of  contributing  to  the  victory  over  hideous 
woes  and  evils.  It  is  the  sight  of  the  great  things  already  done 
for  the  relief  of  human  misery  and  disease  which  prompts  these 
gifts.  It  is  hope  springing  eternally  in  the  human  breast,  the 
hope  of  victory  over  poverty,  misery,  and  vice. 

Such,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  is  to  be  the  beneficent  future  of 
Wesley  an  University,  and  of  all  her  sister  colleges  and  universi- 
ties— a  future  prophesied  by  the  past  and  the  present.  She  will 
always  be  doing  some  perpetual  good,  and,  in  doing  that  good, 
she  will  confirm  and  strengthen  all  the  institutions  of  learning, 
liberty,  and  religion. 


TUESDAY  EVENING 


"WOODROW  WILSON 


ADDRESS 

BY  PRESIDENT  WOODEOW  WILSON 
in 

JOHN  WESLEY  lived  and  wrought  while  the  Georges  reigned. 
He  was  born  but  a  year  after  Anne  became  queen,  a  year  be- 
fore the  battle  of  Blenheim  was  fought;  while  England  was  still 
caught  in  the  toils  of  the  wars  into  which  her  great  constitutional 
revolution  had  drawn  her;  when  Marlborough  was  in  the  field, 
and  the  armies  afoot  which  were  to  make  the  ancient  realm  free 
to  go  her  own  way  without  dictation  from  any  prince  in  Europe. 
But  when  he  came  to  manhood,  and  to  the  days  in  which  his 
work  was  to  begin,  all  things  had  fallen  quiet  again.  Wars  were 
over  and  the  pipes  of  peace  breathed  soothing  strains.  The  day 
of  change  had  passed  and  gone,  and  bluff  Sir  Robert  Walpole 
ruled  the  land,  holding  it  quiet,  aloof  from  excitement,  to  the 
steady  humdrum  course  of  business,  in  which  questions  of  the 
treasury  and  of  the  routine  of  administration  were  talked  about, 
not  questions  of  constitutional  right  or  any  matter  of  deep  con- 
viction. The  first  of  the  dull  Georges  had  come  suitably  into  the 
play  at  the  centre  of  the  slow  plot,  bringing  with  him  the  vulgar 
airs  of  the  provincial  court  of  obscure  Hanover,  and  views  that 
put  statesmanship  out  of  the  question. 

The  real  eighteenth  century  had  set  in,  whose  annals  even  its 
own  historians  have  pronounced  to  be  tedious,  unheroic,  without 
noble  or  moving  plot,  though  they  would  fain  make  what  they  can 
of  the  story.  They  have  found  it  dull  because  it  lacked  dramatic 
unity.  Its  wars  were  fought  for  mere  political  advantage, — be- 
cause politicians  had  intrigued  and  thrones  fallen  vacant ;  for  the 
adjustment  of  the  balance  of  power  or  the  aggrandizement  of  dy- 
nasties ;  and  represented  neither  the  growth  of  empires  nor  the 
progress  of  political  ideals.  All  religion,  they  say,  had  cooled  and 
philanthropy  had  not  been  born.  The  thinkers  of  the  day  had  as 

157 


158  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

little  elevation  of  thought  as  the  statesmen,  the  preachers  as  little 
ardor  as  the  atheistical  wits,  whose  unbelief  they  scarcely  troubled 
themselves  to  challenge.  The  poor  were  unspeakably  degraded 
and  the  rich  had  flung  morals  to  the  winds.  There  was  no  ad- 
venture of  mind  or  conscience  that  seemed  worth  risking  a  fall 
for. 

But  the  historians  who  paint  this  sombre  picture  look  too  little 
upon  individuals,  upon  details,  upon  the  life  that  plays  outside 
the  field  of  politics  and  of  philosophical  thinking.  They  are  in 
search  of  policies,  movements,  great  and  serious  combinations  of 
men,  events  that  alter  the  course  of  history,  or  letters  that  cry  a 
challenge  to  the  spirits.  Forget  statecraft,  forego  seeking  the 
materials  for  systematic  narrative,  and  look  upon  the  eighteenth 
century  as  you  would  look  upon  your  own  day,  as  a  period  of 
human  life  whose  details  are  its  real  substance,  and  you  will 
find  enough  and  to  spare  of  human  interest.  The  literary  annals 
of  a  time,  when  Swift  and  Addison  and  Berkeley  and  Butler 
and  Pope  and  Gray  and  Defoe  and  Richardson  and  Fielding  and 
Smollett  and  Sterne  and  Samuel  Johnson  and  Goldsmith  and 
Burke  and  Hume  and  Gibbon  and  Cowper  and  Burns  wrote, 
and  in  which  Wordsworth,  Coleridge,  Byron,  Shelley,  and  Keats 
were  born,  cannot  be  called  barren  or  without  spiritual  significance. 

No  doubt  the  wits  of  Queen  Anne's  time  courted  a  muse  too 
prim,  too  precise,  too  much  without  passion  to  seem  to  us  worthy 
to  stand  with  the  great  spirit  of  letters  that  speaks  in  the  noble 
poetry  with  which  the  next  century  was  ushered  in;  but  there 
was  here  a  very  sweet  relief  from  the  ungoverned  passions  of  the 
Restoration,  the  licentious  force  of  men  who  knew  the  restraints 
neither  of  purity  nor  of  taste;  and  he  must  need  strong  spices  in 
his  food  who  finds  Swift  insipid.  No  doubt  Fielding  is  coarse, 
and  Richardson  prolix  and  sentimental,  Sterne  prurient  and  with- 
out true  tonic  for  the  mind,  but  the  world  which  these  men  un- 
covered will  always  stand  real  and  vivid  before  our  eyes.  It  is  a 
crowded  and  lively  stage  with  living  persons  upon  it;  the  eigh- 
teenth century  can  never  seem  a  time  vague  and  distant  after  we 
have  read  those  pages  of  intimate  revelation.  No  doubt  Dr. 
Johnson  failed  to  speak  any  vital  philosophy  of  life  and  uttered 
only  common  sense,  and  the  talk  at  the  Turk's  Head  Tavern  ran 
upon  preserving  the  English  Constitution  rather  than  upon  im- 
proving it;  but  it  is  noteworthy  that  Mr.  Goldsmith,  who  was  of 
that  company,  was  born  of  the  same  century  that  produced  Lau- 
rence Sterne,  and  that  "She  Stoops  to  Conquer"  and  the  "Vicar 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  159 

of  "Wakefield,"  with  their  sweet  savor  of  purity  and  modesty  and 
grace,  no  less  than  "Tristram  Shandy"  and  "Tom  Jones,"  with 
their  pungent  odor,  blossomed  in  the  un weeded  garden  of  that 
careless  age.  Burns  sang  with  clear  throat  and  an  unschooled 
rapture  at  the  North,  and  the  bards  were  born  who  were  to  bring 
the  next  age  in  with  strains  that  rule  our  spirits  still. 

A  deep  pulse  beat  in  that  uneventful  century.  All  things  were 
making  ready  for  a  great  change.  When  the  century  began  it 
was  the  morrow  of  a  great  struggle,  from  whose  passionate  en- 
deavors men  rested  with  a  certain  lassitude,  with  a  great  weari- 
ness and  longing  for  peace.  The  travail  of  the  civil  wars  had  not 
ended  with  the  mastery  of  Cromwell,  the  Restoration  of  Charles, 
and  the  ousting  of  James;  it  had  ended  only  with  the  constitu- 
tional revolution  which  followed  1688,  and  with  the  triumphs  of 
the  Prince  of  Orange.  It  had  been  compounded  of  every  element 
that  can  excite  or  subdue  the  spirits  of  men.  Questions  of  politics 
had  sprung  out  of  questions  of  religion,  and  men  had  found  their 
souls  staked  upon  the  issue.  The  wits  of  the  Restoration  tried  to 
laugh  the  ardor  off,  but  it  burned  persistent  until  its  work  was 
done  and  the  liberties  of  England  spread  to  every  field  of  thought 
or  action. 

No  wonder  the  days  of  Queen  Anne  seemed  dull  and  thought 
less  after  such  an  age ;  and  yet  no  wonder  there  was  a  sharp  re- 
action. No  wonder  questions  of  religion  were  avoided,  minor 
questions  of  reform  postponed.  No  wonder  Sir  Robert  sought  to 
cool  the  body  politic  and  calm  men's  minds  for  business.  But 
other  forces  were  gathering  head  as  hot  as  those  which  had  but 
just  subsided.  This  long  age  of  apparent  reaction  was  in  fact  an 
age  of  preparation  also ;  was  not  merely  the  morrow  of  one  revo- 
lution, but  was  also  the  eve  of  another,  more  tremendous  still, 
which  was  to  shake  the  whole  fabric  of  society.  England  had  no 
direct  part  in  bringing  the  French  Revolution  on,  but  she  drank 
with  the  rest  of  the  wine  of  the  age  which  produced  it,  and  before 
it  came  had  had  her  own  rude  awakening  in  the  revolt  of  her 
American  colonies. 

Great  industrial  changes  were  in  progress,  too.  This  century, 
so  dull  to  the  political  historian,  was  the  century  in  which  the 
world  of  our  own  day  was  born,  the  century  of  that  industrial 
revolution  which  made  political  ambition  thenceforth  an  instru- 
ment of  material  achievement,  of  commerce  and  manufacture. 
These  were  the  days  in  which  canals  began  to  be  built  in  England, 
to  open  her  inland  markets  to  the  world  and  shorten  and  multi- 


160  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

ply  her  routes  of  trade;  when  the  spinning  jenny  was  invented 
and  the  steam  engine  and  the  spinning  machine  and  the  weaver's 
mule ;  when  cities  which  had  slept  since  the  middle  ages  waked 
of  a  sudden  to  new  life  and  new  cities  sprang  up  where  only  ham- 
lets had  been.  Peasants  crowded  into  the  towns  for  work;  the 
countrysides  saw  their  life  upset,  unsettled ;  idlers  thronged  the 
highways  and  the  marts,  their  old  life  at  the  plow  or  in  the  vil- 
lage given  up,  no  settled  new  life  found;  there  were  not  police 
enough  to  check  or  hinder  vagrancy,  and  sturdy  beggars  were  all 
too  ready  to  turn  their  hands  to  crime  and  riot.  The  old  order 
was  breaking  up,  and  men  did  not  readily  find  their  places  in  the 
new. 

The  new  age  found  its  philosophy  in  Adam  Smith's  "  Wealth 
of  Nations,"  the  philosophy  of  self-interest,  and  men  thought  too 
constantly  upon  these  things  to  think  deeply  on  any  others.  An 
industrial  age,  an  age  of  industrial  beginnings,  offers  new  adven- 
tures to  the  mind,  and  men  turn  their  energies  into  the  channels 
of  material  power.  It  is  no  time  for  speculations  concerning 
another  world;  the  immediate  task  is  to  fill  this  world  with 
wealth  and  fortune  and  all  the  enginery  of  material  success.  It 
is  no  time  to  regard  men  as  living  souls;  they  must  be  thought 
of  rather  as  tools,  as  workmen,  as  producers  of  wealth,  the  build- 
ers of  industry,  and  the  captains  of  soldiers  of  fortune.  Men 
must  talk  of  fiscal  problems,  of  the  laws  of  commerce,  of  the  raw 
materials  and  the  processes  of  manufacture,  of  the  facilitation  of 
exchange.  Politics  centres  in  the  budget,  and  the  freedom  men 
think  of  is  rather  the  freedom  of  the  market  than  the  freedom  of 
the  hustings  or  of  the  voting  booth. 

And  yet  there  are  here  great  energies  let  loose  which  have  not 
wrought  their  full  effect  upon  the  minds  of  men  in  the  mere  doing 
of  their  daily  tasks  or  the  mere  planning  of  their  fortunes.  Men 
must  think  and  long  as  well  as  toil;  the  wider  the  world  upon 
which  they  spend  themselves  the  wider  the  sweep  of  their  thoughts, 
the  restless,  unceasing  excursions  of  their  hope.  The  mind  of 
England  did  not  lie  quiet  through  those  unquiet  days.  All  things 
were  making  and  to  be  made,  new  thoughts  of  life  as  well  as  new 
ways  of  living.  Masters  and  laborers  alike  were  sharing  in  the 
new  birth  of  society.  And  in  the  midst  of  these  scenes,  this  shift- 
ing of  the  forces  of  the  world,  this  passing  of  old  things  and 
birth  of  new,  stood  John  Wesley,  the  child,  the  contemporary,  the 
spiritual  protagonist  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Born  before  Blen- 
heim had  been  fought,  he  lived  until  the  fires  of  the  French  Revo- 


Copyright,  1903,  by  THE  CENTURY  Co. 


JOHN  WESLEY 

After  the  portrait  by  Romney  (1789)  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  W.  E.  Cassels 

Sec  p.  494,  August,  1903,  Century 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  161 

lution  were  ablaze.  He  was  as  much  the  child  of  his  age  as  Boling- 
broke  was,  or  Robert  Burns.  We  ought  long  ago  to  have  perceived 
that  no  century  yields  a  single  type.  There  are  countrysides  the 
land  over  which  know  nothing  of  London  town.  The  Vicar  of 
Wakefield  rules  his  parish  as  no  rollicking,  free-thinking  fellow 
can  who  sups  with  Laurence  Sterne.  Sir  Roger  de  Coverley  is  as 
truly  a  gentleman  of  his  age  as  Squire  Western.  Quiet  homes 
breed  their  own  sons.  The  Scots  country  at  the  North  has  its  own 
free  race  of  poets  and  thinkers,  men,  some  of  them,  as  stern  as 
puritans  in  the  midst  of  the  loose  age.  Many  a  quiet  village 
church  in  England  hears  preaching  which  has  no  likeness  at  all 
to  the  cool  rationalistic  discourse  of  vicars  and  curates  whom  the 
spiritual  blight  of  the  age  has  touched,  and  witnesses  in  its  vicar- 
age a  life  as  simple,  as  grave,  as  elevated  above  the  vain  pursuits 
of  the  world  as  any  household  of  puritan  days  had  seen.  England 
was  steadied  in  that  day,  as  always,  by  her  great  pervasive  middle 
class,  whose  affections  did  not  veer  amidst  the  heady  gusts  even 
of  that  time  of  change,  when  the  world  was  in  transformation ; 
whose  life  held  to  the  same  standards,  whose  thoughts  travelled 
old  accustomed  ways.  The  indifference  of  the  church  did  not 
destroy  their  religion.  They  did  not  lose  their  prepossessions  for 
the  orderly  manners  and  morals  that  kept  life  pure. 

It  was  no  anomaly,  therefore,  that  the  son  of  Samuel  and  Su- 
sanna Wesley  should  come  from  the  Epworth  rectory  to  preach 
forth  righteousness  and  judgment  to  come  to  the  men  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century.  Epworth,  in  quiet  Lincolnshire,  was  typical  Eng- 
lish land  and  lay  remote  from  the  follies  and  fashions  of  the  age. 
There  was  sober  thinking  and  plain  living, — there  where  low  mo- 
notonous levels  ran  flat  to  the  spreading  Humber  and  the  coasts 
of  the  sea.  The  children  of  that  vicarage,  swarming  a  little  host 
about  its  hearth,  were  bred  in  love  and  fear,  love  of  rectitude  and 
fear  of  sin,  their  imagination  filled  with  the  ancient  sanctions  of  the 
religion  of  the  prophets  and  the  martyrs,  their  lives  drilled  to 
right  action  and  the  studious  service  of  God.  Some  things  in 
the  intercourse  and  discipline  of  that  household  strike  us  with  a 
sort  of  awe,  some  with  repulsion.  Those  children  lived  too  much 
in  the  presence  of  things  unseen  ;  the  inflexible  consciences  of  the 
parents  who  ruled  them  brought  them  under  a  rigid  discipline 
which  disturbed  their  spirits  as  much  as  it  enlightened  them.  But, 
though  gaiety  and  lightness  of  heart  were  there  shut  out,  love 
was  not,  nor  sweetness.  No  one  can  read  Susanna  Wesley's  rules 
for  the  instruction  and  development  of  her  children  without  see- 
11 


162  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

ing  the  tender  heart  of  the  true  woman,  whose  children  were  the 
light  of  her  eyes.  This  mother  was  a  true  counsellor  and  her 
children  resorted  to  her  as  to  a  sort  of  providence,  feeling  safe 
when  she  approved.  For  the  stronger  spirits  among  them  the 
regime  of  that  household  was  a  keen  and  wholesome  tonic. 

And  John  Wesley  was  certainly  one  of  the  stronger  spirits. 
He  came  out  of  the  hands  of  his  mother  with  the  temper  of  a 
piece  of  fine  steel.  All  that  was  executive  and  fit  for  mastery  in 
the  discipline  of  belief  seemed  to  come  to  perfection  in  him.  He 
dealt  with  the  spirits  of  other  men  with  the  unerring  capacity  of 
a  man  of  affairs, — a  sort  of  spiritual  statesman,  a  politician  of 
God,  speaking  the  policy  of  a  kingdom  unseen,  but  real  and 
destined  to  prevail  over  all  kingdoms  else. 

He  did  not  deem  himself  a  reformer;  he  deemed  himself 
merely  a  minister  and  servant  of  the  church  and  the  faith  in 
which  he  had  been  bred,  and  meant  that  no  man  should  avoid 
him  upon  his  errand  though  it  were  necessary  to  search  the 
by-ways  and  beat  the  hedges  to  find  those  whom  he  sought. 
He  did  not  spring  to  his  mission  like  a  man  who  had  seen  a 
vision  and  conceived  the  plan  of  his  life  beforehand,  whole,  and 
with  its  goal  marked  upon  it  as  upon  a  map.  He  learned  what 
it  was  to  be  from  day  to  day,  as  other  men  do.  He  did  not  halt 
or  hesitate,  not  because  his  vision  went  forward  to  the  end,  but 
because  his  will  was  sound,  unfailing,  sure  of  its  immediate  pur- 
pose. His  "  Journal "  is  as  notable  a  record  of  common  sense 
and  sound  practical  judgment  as  Benjamin  Franklin's  "Auto- 
biography "  or  the  letters  of  Washington.  It  is  his  clear  know- 
ledge of  his  duty  and  mission  from  day  to  day  that  is  remarkable, 
and  the  efficiency  with  which  he  moved  from  purpose  to  purpose. 
It  was  a  very  simple  thing  that  he  did,  taking  it  in  its  main  out- 
lines and  conceptions.  Conceiving  religion  vitally,  as  it  had 
been  conceived  in  his  own  home,  he  preached  it  with  a  vigor,  an 
explicitness,  a  directness  of  phrase  and  particularity  of  applica- 
tion which  shocked  the  sober  decorum  of  his  fellow  ministers  of 
the  church  so  much  that  he  was  more  and  more  shut  out  from 
their  pulpits.  He  got  no  church  of  his  own;  probably  no  single 
parish  would  have  satisfied  his  ardor  had  a  living  been  found  for 
him.  He  would  not  sit  still.  The  conviction  of  the  truth  was 
upon  him ;  he  was  a  messenger  of  God,  and  if  he  could  not  preach 
in  the  churches,  where  it  seemed  to  him  the  duty  of  every  man 
who  loved  the  order  and  dignity  of  divine  service  to  stand  if  he 
would  deliver  the  word  of  God,  he  must,  as  God's  man  of  affairs, 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  163 

stand  in  the  fields  as  Mr.  Whitefield  did  and  proclaim  it  to  all 
who  could  come  within  the  sound  of  his  voice. 

And  so  he  made  the  whole  kingdom  his  parish,  took  horse 
like  a  courier  and  carried  his  news  along  every  highway.  Slowly, 
with  no  premeditated  plan,  going  now  here,  now  there,  as  some 
call  of  counsel  or  opportunity  directed  him,  he  moved  as  if  from 
stage  to  stage  of  a  journey;  and  as  he  went  did  his  errand  as  if 
instinctively.  No  stranger  at  an  inn,  no  traveller  met  upon  the 
road  left  him  without  hearing  of  his  business.  Those  he  could 
not  come  to  a  natural  parley  with  he  waylaid.  The  language  of 
his  "Journal"  is- sometimes  almost  that  of  the  highwayman.  "At 
Gerard's  Cross,"  he  says,  "  I  plainly  declared  to  those  whom  God 
gave  into  my  hands  the  faith  as  it  is  in  Jesus:  as  I  did  the  next 
day  to  a  young  man  I  overtook  on  the  road."  The  sober  passion 
of  the  task  grew  upon  him  as  it  unfolded  itself  under  his  hand 
from  month  to  month,  from  year  to  year.  He  was  more  and 
more  upon  the  highways;  his  journeys  lengthened,  carried  him 
into  regions  where  preachers  had  never  gone  before,  to  the 
collieries,  to  the  tin  mines,  to  the  fishing  villages  of  the  coast, 
and  made  him  familiar  with  every  countryside  of  the  kingdom, 
his  slight  and  sturdy  figure  and  shrewd,  kind  face  known  every- 
where. It  was  not  long  before  he  was  in  the  saddle  from  year's 
end  to  year's  end,  always  going  forward  as  if  upon  an  enterprise, 
but  never  hurried,  always  ready  to  stop  and  talk  upon  the  one 
thing  that  absorbed  him,  making  conversation  and  discourse 
his  business,  seizing  upon  a  handful  of  listeners  no  less  eagerly 
than  upon  a  multitude. 

The  news  got  carried  abroad  as  he  travelled  that  he  was  com- 
ing, and  he  was  expected  with  a  sort  of  excitement.  Some  feared 
him.  His  kind  had  never  been  known  in  England  since  the 
wandering  friars  of  the  middle  ages  fell  quiet  and  were  gone. 
And  no  friar  had  ever  spoken  as  this  man  spoke.  He  was  not 
like  Mr.  Whitefield;  his  errand  seemed  hardly  the  same.  Mr. 
Whitefield  swayed  men  with  a  power  known  time  out  of  mind, 
the  power  of  the  consummate  orator  whose  words  possess  the 
mind  and  rule  the  spirit  while  he  speaks.  There  was  no  magic 
of  oratory  in  Mr.  Wesley's  tone  or  presence.  There  was  some- 
thing more  singular,  more  intimate,  more  searching.  He  com- 
manded so  quietly,  wore  so  subtle  an  air  of  gentle  majesty, 
attached  men  to  himself  so  like  a  party  leader,  whose  coming 
draws  together  a  company  of  partisans,  and  whose  going  leaves 
an  organized  band  of  adherents,  that  cautious  men  were  uneasy 


164  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

and  suspicious  concerning  him.  He  seemed  a  sort  of  revolution- 
ist, left  no  community  as  he  found  it,  set  men  by  the  ears.  It  was 
hard  to  believe  that  he  had  no  covert  errand,  that  he  meant 
nothing  more  than  to  preach  the  peaceable  riches  of  Christ.  "The 
spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me,  because  he  hath  anointed  me  to 
preach  the  gospel  to  the  poor;  he  hath  sent  me  to  heal  the 
broken-hearted;  to  preach  deliverance  to  the  captives,  and  re- 
covery of  sight  to  the  blind;  to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are 
bruised,  to  proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord," — this  had 
been  the  text  from  which  he  preached  his  first  sermon  by  the 
highway,  standing  upon  a  little  eminence  just  outside  the  town 
of  Bristol.  It  described  his  mission, — but  not  to  his  enemies. 
The  churches  had  been  shut  against  him,  not  because  he  preached, 
but  because  he  preached  with  so  disturbing  a  force  and  direct- 
ness, as  if  he  had  come  to  take  the  peace  of  the  church  away  and 
stir  men  to  a  great  spiritual  revolution ;  and  uneasy  questionings 
arose  about  him.  Why  was  he  so  busy?  Why  did  he  confer  so 
often  with  an  intimate  group  of  friends,  as  if  upon  some  deep 
plan,  appoint  rendezvous  with  them,  and  seem  to  know  always 
which  way  he  must  turn  next,  and  when  ?  Why  was  he  so  rest- 
less, so  indomitably  eager  to  make  the  next  move  in  his  mysteri- 
ous journey?  Why  did  he  push  on  through  any  weather  and 
look  to  his  mount  like  a  trooper  on  campaign?  Did  he  mean 
to  upset  the  country?  Men  had  seen  the  government  of  England 
disturbed  before  that  by  fanatics  who  talked  only  of  religion  and 
of  judgment  to  come.  The  puritan  and  the  roundhead  had  been  men 
of  this  kind,  and  the  Scottish  covenanters.  Was  it  not  possible 
that  John  Wesley  was  the  emissary  of  a  party  or  of  some  preten- 
der, or  even  of  the  sinister  church  of  Rome? 

He  lived  such  calumnies  down.  No  mobs  dogged  his  steps 
after  men  had  once  come  to  know  him  and  perceived  the  real  quality 
he  was  of.  Indeed,  from  the  very  first  men  had  surrendered  their 
suspicions  upon  sight  of  him.  It  was  impossible,  it  would  seem, 
not  to  trust  him  when  once  you  had  looked  into  his  calm  gray 
eyes.  He  was  so  friendly,  so  simple,  so  open,  so  ready  to  meet  your 
challenge  with  temperate  and  reasonable  reply,  that  it  was  im- 
possible to  deem  him  subtle,  politic,  covert,  a  man  to  preach  one 
thing  and  plan  another.  There  was  something,  too,  in  his  speech 
and  in  the  way  he  bore  himself  which  discovered  the  heart  of 
every  man  he  dealt  with.  Men  would  raise  their  hands  to  strike 
him  in  the  mob  and,  having  caught  the  look  in  his  still  eye,  bring 
them  down  to  stroke  his  hair.  Something  issued  forth  from  him 


WESLEYAN  UNIVEBSITY  165 

which  penetrated  and  subdued  them, —  some  suggestion  of  purity, 
some  intimation  of  love,  some  sign  of  innocence  and  nobility, — 
some  power  at  once  of  rebuke  and  attraction  which  he  must  have 
caught  from  his  Master.  And  so  there  came  a  day  when  prej- 
udice stood  abashed  before  him,  and  men  everywhere  hailed  his 
coming  as  the  coming  of  a  friend  and  pastor.  He  became  not 
only  the  best  known  man  in  the  kingdom, —  that  of  course,  be- 
cause he  went  everywhere, —  but  also  the  best  loved  and  the  most 
welcome. 

And  yet  the  first  judgment  of  him  had  not  been  wholly  wrong. 
A  sort  of  revolution  followed  him,  after  all.  It  was  not  merely 
that  he  came  and  went  so  constantly  and  moved  every  country- 
side with  his  preaching.  Something  remained  after  he  was  gone: 
the  touch  of  the  statesman  men  had  at  first  taken  him  to  be. 
He  was  a  minister  of  the  Church  of  England.  He  loved  her 
practices  and  had  not  willingly  broken  with  them.  It  had  been 
with  the  keenest  reluctance  that  he  consented  to  preach  in  the 
fields,  outside  the  sacred  precincts  of  a  church,  "  having  been  all 
my  life,"  as  he  said,  "  so  tenacious  of  every  point  relating  to 
decency  and  order  that  I  should  have  thought  the  saving  of  souls 
almost  a  sin  if  it  had  not  been  done  in  a  church."  He  never 
broke  with  the  communion  he  loved.  But  his  work  in  the  wide 
parish  of  a  whole  kingdom  could  not  be  done  alone,  and  not 
many  men  bred  to  the  orders  of  the  church  could  be  found  to  as- 
sist him ;  he  was  forced  by  sheer  drift  of  circumstances  to  estab- 
lish a  sort  of  lay  society,  a  sort  of  salvation  army,  to  till  the  fields 
he  had  plowed.  He  was  a  born  leader  of  men.  The  conferences 
he  held  with  the  friends  he  loved  and  trusted  were  councils  of 
campaign,  and  did  hold  long  plans  in  view,  as  his  enemies  sus- 
pected. They  have  a  high  and  honorable  place  in  the  history  of 
the  statesmanship  of  salvation.  It  was  a  chief  part  of  Wesley's 
singular  power  that  everything  he  touched  took  shape  as  if  with 
a  sort  of  institutional  life.  He  was  not  so  great  a  preacher  as 
Whitefield  or  so  moving  a  poet  as  his  brother  Charles;  men 
counseled  him  who  were  more  expert  and  profound  theologians 
than  he  and  more  subtle  reasoners  upon  the  processes  of  salva- 
tion. But  in  him  all  things  seemed  combined;  no  one  power 
seemed  more  excellent  than  another,  and  every  power  expressed 
itself  in  action  under  the  certain  operation  of  his  planning  will. 
He  almost  unwittingly  left  a  church  behind  him. 

It  is  this  statesmanship  in  the  man  that  gives  him  precedence 
in  the  annals  of  his  day.  Men's  spirits  were  not  dead  j  they  are 
11* 


166  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

never  dead;  but  they  sometimes  stand  confused,  daunted,  or 
amazed  as  they  did  amidst  the  shifting  scenes  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  and  wait  to  be  commanded.  This  man  commanded  them, 
and  kept  his  command  over  them,  not  only  by  the  way  he  held 
the  eye  of  the  whole  nation  in  his  incessant  tireless  journeys,  his 
presence  everywhere,  his  winning  power  of  address,  but  also  by 
setting  up  deputies,  classes,  societies,  where  he  himself  could  not 
be,  with  their  places  of  meeting,  their  organizations  and  efficient 
way  of  action.  He  was  as  practical  and  attentive  to  details  as  a 
master  of  industry,  and  as  keen  to  keep  hold  of  the  business  he 
had  set  afoot.  It  was  a  happy  gibe  that  dubbed  the  men  of  his 
way  Methodists.  It  was  the  method  of  his  evangelization  that 
gave  it  permanance  and  historical  significance.  He  would  in  any 
case  have  been  a  notable  figure,  a  moving  force  in  the  history  of 
his  age.  His  mere  preaching,  his  striking  personality,  his  mere 
presence  everywhere  in  the  story  of  the  time,  his  mere  vagrancy 
and  indomitable  charm,  would  have  drawn  every  historian  to 
speak  of  him  and  make  much  of  his  picturesque  part  in  the 
motley  drama  of  the  century ;  but  as  it  is  they  have  been  con- 
strained to  put  him  among  statesmen  as  well  as  in  their  cata- 
logues of  saints  and  missionaries. 

History  is  inexorable  with  men  who  isolate  themselves.  They 
are  suffered  oftentimes  to  find  a  place  in  literature,  but  never  in 
the  story  of  events  or  in  any  serious  reckoning  of  cause  and  effect. 
They  may  be  interesting,  but  they  are  not  important.  The  mere 
revolutionist  looks  small  enough  when  his  day  is  passed;  the 
mere  agitator  struts  but  a  little  while  and  without  applause 
amidst  the  scenes  and  events  which  men  remember.  It  is  the 
men  who  make  as  well  as  destroy  who  really  serve  their  race, 
and  it  is  noteworthy  how  action  predominated  in  Wesley  from 
the  first.  The  little  coterie  at  Oxford,  to  which  we  look  back  as 
to  the  first  associates  in  the  movement  which  John  Wesley  dom- 
inated, were  as  fervent  in  their  prayers,  in  their  musings  upon 
the  Scripture,  in  their  visits  to  the  poor  and  outcast,  before  John 
Wesley  joined  them  as  afterward.  Their  zeal  had  its  roots  in 
the  divine  pity  which  must  lie  at  the  heart  of  every  evangelistic 
movement, —  pity  for  those  to  whom  the  gospel  is  not  preached, 
whom  no  light  of  Christian  guidance  had  reached,  the  men  in 
the  jails  and  in  the  purlieus  of  the  towns  whom  the  church  does 
not  seek  or  touch  ;  but  he  gave  them  leadership  and  the  spirit  of 
achievement.  His  genius  for  action  touched  everything  he  was 
associated  with ;  every  enterprise  took  from  him  an  impulse  of 
efficiency. 


WESLEYAN  UNIVEBSITY  167 

Unquestionably  this  man  altered  and  in  his  day  governed  the 
spiritual  history  of  England  and  the  English-speaking  race  on 
both  sides  of  the  sea ;  and  we  ask  what  was  ready  at  his  hand, 
what  did  he  bring  into  being  of  the  things  he  seemed  to  create  ? 
The  originative  power  of  the  individual  in  affairs  must  always  re- 
main a  mystery,  a  theme  more  full  of  questions  than  of  answers. 
What  would  the  eighteenth  century  in  England  have  produced  of 
spiritual  betterment  without  John  Wesley  ?  What  did  he  give  it 
which  it  could  not  have  got  without  him  ?  These  are  questions 
which  no  man  can  answer.  But  one  thing  is  plain :  Wesley  did 
not  create  life,  he  only  summoned  it  to  consciousness.  The  eigh- 
teenth century  was  not  dead ;  it  was  not  even  asleep ;  it  was  only 
confused,  unorganized,  without  authoritative  leadership  in  mat- 
ters of  faith  and  doctrine,  uncertain  of  its  direction. 

Wesley's  own  Journal  affords  us  an  authentic  picture  of  the 
time,  mixed,  as  always,  of  good  and  bad.  He  fared  well  or  ill 
upon  his  journeys  as  England  was  itself  made  up.  The  self-gov- 
ernment of  England  in  that  day  was  a  thing  uncentred  and  un- 
systematic in  a  degree  it  is  nowadays  difficult  for  us  to  imagine. 
The  country  gentlemen,  who  were  magistrates,  ruled  as  they 
pleased  in  the  countrysides,  whether  in  matters  of  justice  or  ad- 
ministration, without  dictation  or  suggestion  from  London ;  and 
yet  ruled  rather  as  representatives  than  as  masters.  They  were 
neighbors  the  year  around  to  the  people  they  ruled ;  their  inter- 
ests were  not  divorced  from  the  interests  of  the  rest.  Local 
pride  and  a  public  spirit  traditional  amongst  them  held  them  gen- 
erally to  a  just  and  upright  course.  But  the  process  of  justice 
with  them  was  a  process  of  opinion  as  much  as  of  law.  It  was 
an  inquest  of  the  neighborhood,  and  each  neighborhood  dealt 
with  visitors  and  vagrants  as  it  would.  There  was  everywhere 
the  free  touch  of  individuality.  The  roads  were  not  policed; 
the  towns  were  not  patrolled, —  good  men  and  bad  had  almost 
equal  leave  to  live  as  they  pleased.  If  things  went  wrong  the 
nearest  magistrate  must  be  looked  up  at  his  home  or  stopped  in 
his  carriage  as  he  passed  along  the  highway  and  asked  to  pass 
judgment  as  chief  neighbor  and  arbiter  of  the  place.  And  so  Mr. 
Wesley  dealt  with  individuals, —  it  was  the  English  way.  His 
safety  lay  in  the  love  and  admiration  he  won  or  in  the  sense  of 
fair  play  to  which  his  frank  and  open  methods  appealed;  his 
peril,  in  the  passions  of  the  crowds  or  of  the  individuals  who 
pressed  about  him  full  of  hatred  and  evil  thoughts. 

The  noteworthy  thing  was  how  many  good  men  he  found  along 
these  highways  where  Tom  Jones  had  travelled,  how  many  were 


168  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

glad  to  listen  to  him  and  rejoiced  at  the  message  he  brought,  how 
many  were  just  and  thoughtful  and  compassionate,  and  waited  for 
the  gospel  with  an  open  heart.  This  man,  as  I  have  said,  was  no 
engaging  orator,  whom  it  would  have  been  a  pleasure  to  hear 
upon  any  theme.  He  spoke  very  searching  words,  sharper  than 
any  two-edged  sword,  cutting  the  conscience  to  the  quick.  It 
was  no  pastime  to  hear  him.  It  was  the  more  singular,  there- 
fore, the  more  significant,  the  more  pitiful,  how  eagerly  he  was 
sought  out,  as  if  by  men  who  knew  their  sore  need  and  would 
fain  hear  some  word  of  help,  though  it  were  a  word  also  of  stern 
rebuke  and  of  fearful  portent  to  those  who  went  astray.  The 
spiritual  hunger  of  men  was  manifest,  their  need  of  the  church, 
their  instinct  to  be  saved.  The  time  was  ready  and  cried  out  for 
a  spiritual  revival. 

The  church  was  dead  and  Wesley  awakened  it ;  the  poor  were 
neglected  and  Wesley  sought  them  out ;  the  gospel  was  shrunken 
into  formulas  and  Wesley  flung  it  fresh  upon  the  air  once  more  in 
the  speech  of  common  men;  the  air  was  stagnant  and  fetid;  he 
cleared  and  purified  it  by  speaking  always  and  everywhere  the 
word  of  God;  and  men's  spirits  responded,  leaped  at  the  message, 
and  were  made  wholesome  as  they  comprehended  it.  It  was  a 
voice  for  which  they  had  waited,  though  they  knew  it  not.  It 
would  not  have  been  heard  had  it  come  untimely.  It  was  the 
voice  of  the  century's  longing  heard  in  the  mouth  of  this  one 
man  more  perfectly,  more  potently,  than  in  the  mouth  of  any 
other, —  and  this  man  a  master  of  other  men,  a  leader  who  left 
his  hearers  wiser  than  he  found  them  in  the  practical  means  of 
salvation. 

And  so  everything  that  made  for  the  regeneration  of  the  times 
seemed  to  link  itself  with  Methodism.  The  great  impulse  of 
humane  feeling  which  marked  the  closing  years  of  the  century 
seemed  in  no  small  measure  to  spring  from  it:  the  reform  of 
prisons,  the  agitation  for  the  abolition  of  slavery,  the  establishment 
of  missionary  societies  and  Bible  societies,  the  introduction  into 
life,  and  even  into  law,  of  pity  for  the  poor,  compassion  for  those 
who  must  suffer.  The  noble  philanthropies  and  reforms  which 
brighten  the  annals  of  the  nineteenth  century  had  their  spiritual 
birth  in  the  eighteenth.  Wesley  had  carried  Christianity  to  the 
masses  of  the  people,  had  renewed  the  mission  of  Christ  himself, 
and  all  things  began  to  take  color  from  what  he  had  done.  Men 
to  whom  Methodism  meant  nothing,  yet,  in  fact,  followed  this 
man  to  whom  Methodism  owed  its  establishment. 


WESLEYAN  UNIVEESITY  169 

No  doubt  he  played  no  small  part  in  saving  England  from  the 
madness  which  fell  upon  France  ere  the  century  ended.  The 
English  poor  bore  no  such  intolerable  burdens  as  the  poor  of 
France  had  to  endure.  There  was  no  such  insensate  preservation 
of  old  abuses  in  England  as  maddened  the  unhappy  country 
across  the  Channel.  But  society  was  in  sharp  transition  in  Eng- 
land; one  industrial  age  was  giving  place  to  another,  and  the 
poor  particularly  were  sadly  at  a  loss  to  find  their  places  in  the 
new.  "Work  was  hard  to  get,  and  the  new  work  of  pent-up  towns 
was  harder  to  understand  and  to  do  than  the  old  familiar  work 
in  the  field  or  in  the  village  shops.  There  were  sharper  contrasts 
now  than  before  between  rich  and  poor,  and  the  rich  were  no 
longer  always  settled  neighbors  in  some  countryside,  but  often 
upstart  merchants  in  the  towns,  innovating  manufacturers  who 
seemed  bent  upon  making  society  over  to  suit  their  own  interests. 
It  might  have  gone  hard  with  order  and  government  in  a  nation 
so  upset,  transformed,  distracted,  had  not  the  hopeful  lessons  of 
religion  been  taught  broadcast  and  the  people  made  to  feel  that 
once  more  pity  and  salvation  had  sought  them  out. 

There  is  a  deep  fascination  in  this  mystery  of  what  one  man 
may  do  to  change  the  face  of  his  age.  John  Wesley,  we  have 
had  reason  to  say,  planned  no  reform,  premeditated  no  revivifica 
tion  of  society;  his  was  simply  the  work  of  an  efficient  conviction. 
How  far  he  was  himself  a  product  of  the  century  which  he  re- 
vived it  were  a  futile  piece  of  metaphysic  to  inquire.  That  even 
his  convictions  were  born  of  his  age  may  go  without  saying: 
they  are  born  in  us  also  by  a  study  of  his  age,  and  no  century 
listens  to  a  voice  out  of  another, — least  of  all  out  of  a  century 
yet  to  come.  What  is  important  for  us  is  the  method  and  cause 
of  John  Wesley's  success.  His  method  was  as  simple  as  the 
object  he  had  in  view.  He  wanted  to  get  at  men,  and  he  went 
directly  to  them,  not  so  much  like  a  priest  as  like  a  fellow  man 
standing  in  a  like  need  with  themselves.  And  the  cause  of  his 
success?  Genius,  no  doubt,  and  the  gifts  of  a  leader  of  men,  but 
also  something  less  singular,  though  perhaps  not  less  individual, — 
a  clear  conviction  of  revealed  truth  and  of  its  power  to  save. 
Neither  men  nor  society  can  be  saved  by  opinions;  nothing  has 
power  to  prevail  but  the  conviction  which  commands,  not  the 
mind  merely,  but  the  will  and  the  whole  spirit  as  well.  It  is  this 
and  this  only  that  makes  one  spirit  the  master  of  others,  and  no 
man  need  fear  to  use  his  conviction  in  any  age.  It  will  not  fail 
of  its  power.  Its  magic  has  no  sorcery  of  words,  no  trick  of  per- 


170  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

sonal  magnetism.    It  concentrates  personality  as  if  into  a  single 
element  of  sheer  force,  and  transforms  conduct  into  a  life. 

John  Wesley's  place  in  history  is  the  place  of  the  evangelist 
who  is  also  a  master  of  affairs.  The  evangelization  of  the  world 
will  always  be  the  road  to  fame  and  power,  but  only  to  those  who 
take  it  seeking,  not  these  things,  but  the  kingdom  of  God;  and  if 
the  evangelist  be  what  John  Wesley  was,  a  man  poised  in  spirit, 
deeply  conversant  with  the  natures  of  his  fellow-men,  studious  of 
the  truth,  sober  to  think,  prompt  and  yet  not  rash  to  act,  apt  to 
speak  without  excitement  and  yet  with  a  keen  power  of  convic- 
tion, he  can  do  for  another  age  what  John  Wesley  did  for  the 
eighteenth  century.  His  age  was  singular  in  its  need,  as  he  was 
singular  in  his  gifts  and  power.  The  eighteenth  century  cried 
out  for  deliverance  and  light,  and  God  had  prepared  this  man  to 
show  again  the  might  and  the  blessing  of  his  salvation. 


WEDNESDAY 
JULY  1 

COMMENCEMENT  DAY 


CHAUNCEY  BUNCE  BREWSTER 


ADDRESS 
BY  BISHOP  CHAUNCEY  BTOCE  BREWSTER 


IT  is  counted  by  me  a  privilege  to  accept  the  courteous  invita- 
tion of  this  university  to  participate  in  the  commemoration 
of  a  movement  that  began  in  the  University  of  Oxford  nearly  two 
hundred  years  ago.  Personal  matters  apart,  it  is  perhaps  not 
unfitting  that  there  should  on  this  occasion  be  some  such  recog- 
nition of  that  church  whereof  Wesley,  in  the  last  year  of  his  life, 
professed  that  he  lived  and  died  a  member.  "They  that  turn 
many  to  righteousness  shall  shine  as  the  stars  forever  and  ever." 
Certainly  in  the  entire  firmament  of  the  Church  of  England 
shines  no  brighter  star.  Among  her  greatest  there  is  no  greater 
name,  if  we  measure  magnitude  by  results  wrought  upon  the 
destinies  of  men,  than  John  Wesley.  They  did  not  take  his  idea 
for  a  hundred  years.  Bishops  make  many  a  blunder.  But  never 
was  there  a  blunder  bigger  in  result  than  that  of  the  bishops 
in  Wesley's  time.  The  Church  of  England  never  lost  Wesley; 
but  she  did  lose  the  greatest  opportunity  she  has  had  in  three 
centuries. 

The  English-speaking  world  on  both  sides  of  the  water  well  may 
honor  the  memory  of  Wesley.  In  him  and  his  was  a  large  part 
of  the  salt  that  saved  England  in  the  eighteenth  century.  It  was 
an  age  of  industrial  transition  and  of  political  ferment.  Method- 
ism drew  the  lower  middle  class  together,  but  drew  them  with  the 
bands  of  love.  It  was  at  once  an  organizing  and  a  refining  influ- 
ence. The  intellect  of  the  working-man  was  aroused,  and  in  the 
chapel  and  class-meeting  trained  for  higher  things.  It  was  a  dis- 
tinct and  the  most  potent  factor  in  the  training  of  a  democracy. 
And  when  the  hour  of  crisis  struck,  the  training  stood  the  test. 

It  was  my  misfortune  not  to  hear,  last  evening,  the  eminent 
historian  who  presides  over  Princeton  University.  Doubtless  he 
called  attention  to  all  this.  In  the  days  of  the  Revolution  in 
France,  that  the  volcanic  eruption  there  was  not  accompanied  by 
some  like  disturbance  in  England,  as  Mount  St.  Vincent  responded 

173 


174  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

to  Pelee,  was  because  England  had  had  John  Wesley  and  his 
labor  of  love.  Discontent  had  been  taught  to  recognize  where 
and  what  were  the  deepest  evils 5  instead  of  "liberty"  and  "fra- 
ternity" as  watchwords  of  sometimes  demoniac  frenzy,  had  been 
taught  a  better  and  a  more  universal  brotherhood  and  the  genuine 
freedom  for  which  Christ  set  men  free. 

The  eighteenth  century  found  English  religion  in  a  state  of 
lethargy.  Its  general  condition  was  hard  and  cold.  Not  only 
dogmatic  theology,  but  also,  to  a  great  extent,  religious  life,  was 
locked  in  the  fast  embrace  of  that  glacial  epoch,  which  had 
brought  with  it  in  its  slow  movement  detached  boulders  of  truth, 
but  had  frozen  out  of  religion  most  of  its  vitality.  God  was 
generally  thought  of  as  far  away.  Naturally  there  was  little 
consciousness  of  any  divine  touch  of  inspiration  and  quickening 
life.  It  was  an  age  that  shunned  enthusiasm  like  the  plague.  It 
relied  upon  rational  methods  and  processes,  and  had  largely 
turned  its  attention  from  spiritual  interests  to  political  and 
material  things. 

After  that  spiritual  lethargy  came  a  great  awakening.  Men 
having  no  hope  and  without  God  in  the  world  were  aroused  to  a 
sense  of  God's  nearness,  and  to  a  joyous  hope  of  salvation.  In- 
stead of  a  theology  of  dry  intellectual  processes,  Methodism 
brought  a  religion  of  intuitions  and  vital  experience,  the  gospel 
of  a  Saviour  and  an  indwelling  Spirit.  It  is  interesting  to  note 
that  Wesley's  last  sermon  before  the  university,  his  famous  ser- 
mon at  St.  Mary's,  Oxford,  August  24,  1744,  had  for  a  text, 
"  They  were  all  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost."  It  might  have 
served  as  a  motto  to  express  the  hope  and  purpose  of  his  preach- 
ing—  the  Holy  Spirit  of  love  and  power,  also  the  possibility  and 
hope  for  all  men.  He  appealed  to  all  men  with  a  universal 
gospel. 

A  lesson  we  well  may  learn  is  not  to  be  afraid  of  enthusiasm. 
The  word  "  enthusiasm "  I  use  not  in  the  sense  in  which  Locke 
distinguished  it  from  both  reason  and  revelation.  Two  centuries 
ago  enthusiasm  conveyed  an  idea  of  some  irrational  and  false  ex- 
travagance. From  this  taint  the  word  even  in  the  eighteenth 
century  began  to  be  redeemed,  so  that  Alexander  Hamilton 
could  write  of  "a  certain  enthusiasm  in  liberty,  that  makes  human 
nature  rise  above  itself  in  acts  of  bravery  and  heroism."  By 
enthusiasm  here  I  mean  a  certain  something  in  religion  which 
Wesley  found  that  made  his  nature  rise  above  itself  in  acts  of 
bravery  and  heroism.  I  mean  a  certain  something  in  religion 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  175 

which  differs  from  inspiration  only  in  that  it  refers  to  a  resultant 
state  whereof  inspiration  is  the  cause.  I  mean  that  principle 
in  religion  which  emphasizes  spirit  rather  than  intellect  alone. 
What  is  the  very  meaning  of  enthusiasm  ?  It  means,  literally, 
God  within.  And  God  within  means  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  inward 
man. 

Thus  genuine  enthusiasm  is  no  irrational  and  frenzied  ecstasy. 
It  is  far  more  than  weak  emotionalism.  In  John  Wesley  there 
were  no  hysterics.  Even  in  that  momentous  hour  in  Aldersgate 
Street  he  felt  his  heart  strangely  warm,  but  says  there  was  no 
joy.  His  soul  was  warmed  by  fire  whence  came  energy  of 
motive  power,  even  the  power  of  the  Spirit.  From  Wesley,  I 
say,  we  may  learn  to  welcome  genuine  enthusiasm,  and  its  witness 
of  the  Spirit  with  the  spirits  of  the  children  of  God.  And  we 
may  learn  to  appeal  to  the  whole  of  man,  heart,  soul,  spirit,  as 
well  as  head. 

This  same  year  brings  also  the  two-hundredth  anniversary  of 
the  birth  of  one  who  was  perhaps  the  greatest  genius  of  that  cen- 
tury, a  man  whom  this  commonwealth  may  claim,  who  was  born 
on  the  banks  of  this  same  river.  It  were  interesting  to  mark  the 
contrast  between  John  Wesley  and  Jonathan  Edwards.  The 
man  of  the  Old  World  came  out  to  the  New,  and  later  sent  forth 
hither  a  potent  and  multiplying  influence.  The  man  of  the  New 
World  lived  his  life  within  narrow  limits,  at  Windsor,  New 
Haven  and  Wethersfield,  Northampton  and  Stockbridge.  Wes- 
ley looked  upon  all  the  world  as  his  parish;  Edwards  made  his 
contracted  field  of  labor  his  world.  Content  with  remote  retire- 
ment, withdrawn  from  the  crowd  and  absorbed  in  abstract  study, 
he  lived  in  thought.  Wesley  was  everywhere,  an  incessant  trav- 
eller, untiring  in  manifold  activities.  The  one  was  a  thinker,  a 
metaphysician.  The  other  was  an  organizer,  a  practical  man, 
who  proceeded  by  experiment,  and  from  expedient  to  expedient. 
Both  were  great  preachers.  Edwards's  preaching  in  its  terrible 
clinch  upon  men  was  dogmatic  and  theological.  Wesley  held 
heart  and  life  in  the  grasp  of  everlasting  arms  of  love.  Edwards 
built  up  a  vast  system  of  theology ;  Wesley  led  a  new  departure 
in  the  teaching  of  religion.  The  theology  of  Edwards  was  pro- 
foundly intellectual,  metaphysical,  Calvinistic,  predestinarian ; 
the  mission  of  Wesley  was  to  bring  to  all,  whosoever  will,  salva- 
tion. He  preached  God's  love  for  all  men.  Edwards  towers  above 
his  age,  a  commanding,  dominating,  overshadowing  name,  like 
an  Alpine  summit  rising  in  lonely  eminence  above  the  clouds, 


176  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

cold  and  still,  austere,  sublime.  The  influence  of  Wesley  may  be 
compared  to  the  broad  ocean,  never  still,  but  in  its  restless  mo- 
tion and  the  unceasing  rhythm  of  its  tides  generating  life-giving 
influences,  generous  to  all  shores,  pervasive,  universal. 

This  contrast  may  suggest  something  further  which  we  may 
observe.  The  theology  of  Edwards  left  man  largely  out  of  the 
account.  Wesley  was  characterized  by  an  enthusiasm  of  human- 
ity. In  his  recognition  of  the  social  element  in  religion  he  was 
a  long  distance  in  advance  of  his  time.  Early  had  found  lodg- 
ment in  his  soul  a  seed  thought :  "  You  must  find  companions  or 
make  them.  The  Bible  knows  nothing  of  solitary  religion."  It 
was  seed  that  in  his  life  brought  forth  fruit  a  hundred  hundred- 
fold. In  his  conviction :  "  Ourselves  and  others  can  never  be 
put  asunder,"  he  anticipated  some  of  the  best  thought  of  our 
day.  Autocratic  he  may  have  been,  but  selfish  his  religion  never 
was.  His  heart  burned  within  him  with  the  fire  the  Son  of  God 
came  to  bring.  Enkindled  there  by  the  breath  of  the  Spirit  of 
God,  it  never  ceased  to  burn  in  flames  of  love  to  men  and  of  in- 
dignation against  inhumanity.  His  last  letter  was  to  Wilber- 
force  expressing  sympathy  with  his  crusade  against  slavery. 

Wesley  had  had  his  forerunner  a  century  before  in  George 
Fox,  who  taught  the  inner  light  of  the  Spirit  and  who  was  the 
apostle  of  the  new  philanthropy.  Fox,  however,  left  out  of 
view  the  possibilities  in  Christian  society,  the  Spirit  in  the  body, 
the  Church  as  organized  humanity ;  and  so  far  forth  Fox  failed. 
Wesley  made  no  such  mistake.  He  saw  that  Christianity  was 
essentially  social.  His  vision  discerned  the  possibilities  in  asso- 
ciated humanity,  in  "joining  together,"  to  use  his  own  phrase, 
"those  that  are  awakened."  He  had  a  very  genius  for  organiza- 
tion, as  was  shown  in  his  societies  and  class-meetings. 

Moreover,  his  purpose  for  this  associated  effort  was  social 
service.  His  class-meeting  was  formed  on  the  idea  of  responsi- 
bility for  one  another.  He  broke  away  from  the  anti-social 
quietism  of  the  Moravians.  His  religion  meant  energy  of  labor 
on  behalf  of  men.  He  anticipated  a  later  age  in  his  schools,  his 
own  indefatigable  labor  at  teaching,  his  visiting  of  prisons,  his 
interest  in  anti-slavery  agitation.  In  regard  to  many  social 
problems  he  inaugurated  a  new  era.  As  organized  by  him, 
Methodism  was  a  potent  social  force  for  the  regeneration  of 
society. 

Nor  was  Wesley's  social  organization  at  all  mechanical.  With 
all  his  imperious  temper  of  mind  and  rule  over  men,  he  did  not 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  177 

ignore  the  spiritual  and  personal.  Social  regeneration  by  per 
sonal  piety  was  his  aim.  Men  and  women  of  every  class  and  con- 
dition were  souls.  It  was  a  revival  of  personal  religion  that 
through  its  associated  effort  became  contagious  and  swept  over 
the  land,  until  before  he  died  spiritual  vitality  had  been  in  the 
old  Church  quickened. 

Certain  great  lessons  here  stand  out  which  it  behooves  us  to 
heed  to-day.  First :  the  value  of  associated  effort.  In  the  trades- 
unions  and  other  combinations  of  to-day  there  are  vast  possibili- 
ties of  good.  In  the  Christian  Church  there  is  immeasurable 
latent  social  energy  waiting  to  be  directed  and  utilized. 

Second:  the  responsibility  for  social  service  involved  in  Chris- 
tian discipleship.  "  This  commandment  have  we  from  Him,  that 
he  who  loveth  God  love  his  brother  also."  It  is  not  a  mere  senti- 
ment. It  is  the  principle  of  brotherhood.  There  is  demanded  a 
social  righteousness.  The  problem  of  character  is  necessarily 
more  than  individualistic.  Christ's  test  for  the  day  of  judgment 
was  not  a  merely  individual  but  a  social  test.  It  is  not  the  re- 
ligion of  Christ  when  one  holds  himself  aloof  from  contact  with 
one's  fellow-beings,  except  those  that  are  in  comfortable  circum- 
stances and  are  cultivated  and  congenial,  and  is  deaf  to 

The  still,  sad  music  of  humanity, 

with  no  pity  or  sympathy  to  spare,  no  enthusiasm  of  humanity 
to  thrill  the  pulse  and  stir  the  soul.  There  is  what  may  be  called 
a  Christian  socialism.  Being  Christian,  it  must  recognize  and 
cherish  the  liberty  of  each  to  live  his  own  life.  It  means,  also, 
moral  energy  not  wholly  spending  itself  in  narrow  individual 
channels,  but  recognizing  the  general  welfare  and  seeking  a  com- 
mon good  to  all,  turning  from  the  petty  and  the  partial  to  the 
great  and  universal  whole. 

Third:  the  importance  of  the  personal  tissue  whereof  society 
is  composed.  Behind  the  machinery  of  organization  is  the  man. 
In  the  last  analysis  you  come  to  the  individual  personal  life.  Per- 
sonal is  only  another  name  for  spiritual.  The  evils  of  his  time 
Wesley  attacked  along  the  line,  and  by  the  methods,  of  personal 
salvation  and  sanctification  through  the  Spirit. 

We  shall  do  well  to  heed  the  lesson.  The  social  problems  of 
our  time  have  their  spiritual  side.  They  are  correlated  with 
moral  and  spiritual  questions.  And  in  that  direction  lies  the 
hope  of  their  final  solution.  From  economics  we  are  led  inevita- 
bly on  into  ethics.  It  is  a  question  of  raising  not  wages  and  the 
12 


178  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

standard  of  living  merely,  but  also  characters  and  the  tone  of  life. 
There  are  involved  not  only  economic  laws,  but  also  spiritual 
qualities:  sympathy,  generosity,  patience,  self-control  and  self- 
sacrifice,  truth  and  trust,  faith,  hope,  and  love.  Through  the 
economic  mechanism  must  work  spiritual  motive  power.  There 
are  spiritual  forces  to  be  applied.  The  Spirit  of  God  is  brooding 
over  the  seeming  chaos  and  waiting  to  bring  order  through  His 
influence  on  the  spirits  of  men. 

Finally,  let  me  speak  of  Wesley  in  relation  to  Christian  unity. 
With  him  the  odium  theologicum  found  no  encouragement.  To 
what  lengths  pious  men  could  in  those  days  be  inspired  by  theo- 
logical rancor  we  may  see  in  the  choice  epithets  flung  by  the 
author  of  "  Rock  of  Ages  "  at  John  Wesley.  Far  other  was  Wes- 
ley's attitude.  In  him  there  was  appreciation,  and  from  him 
there  was  recognition,  of  good  in  one  and  another  who  differed 
widely  from  him. 

In  another  respect  Wesley  was  in  advance  of  his  day.  He 
broke  with  no  man  for  his  opinions.  He  did  not  insist  that  others 
should  hold  this  or  that  opinion.  He  was  a  herald  of  that  prin- 
ciple of  discrimination  which  distinguishes  between  faith  in  its 
simplicity  and  the  wide  range  of  possible  opinions  and  views, 
which,  maintaining  for  faith  the  things  which  belong  to  faith, 
claims  also  for  freedom  the  things  which  belong  to  freedom. 

I  need  not  tell  this  audience  that  Wesley's  intention  was  far 
from  contemplating  the  great  separation  that  ensued  between  the 
Methodists  and  the  Church  of  England,  nor  quote  the  language 
in  which  he  urgently  advised  against  such  separation.  He  seems 
to  have  conceived  of  great  organizations  within  the  organism  of 
the  one  body  of  all  the  baptized.  Greater  than  any  organization 
or  particular  church  is  the  whole  multitude  of  that  spiritual  com- 
monwealth. "  Who  can  count  the  dust  of  Jacob,  and  the  num- 
ber of  the  fourth  part  of  Israel?" 

The  outlook  of  our  age  is  bright  with  a  promise  that  did  not 
illume  the  eighteenth  century,  but  which  would  have  rejoiced 
Wesley's  heart  could  he  have  beheld  it  even  from  afar.  The  spirit 
of  our  age  is  synthetic.  Electricity  and  the  march  of  events  are 
bringing  men  together.  It  is  an  age  of  national  and  imperial 
unification  and  of  international  approaches.  Men's  minds  are 
turned  to  great  unities  of  thought,  of  political  and  commercial,  of 
social,  and  of  religious  life.  Parts  of  Christendom,  separated  by 
distance  and  division,  have  been  thrilled  by  common  currents  of 
catholic  thought.  Many  influences  conspire  to  beget  a  general 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  179 

desire  for  unity,  and  to  create  an  atmosphere  more  favorable  to 
it  than  for  some  centuries  past. 

There  is  a  vision  of  faith  to  the  uplift  and  the  outlook  whereof 
we  are  borne  as  we  hear  that  prayer,  "that  they  may  all  be 
one;  .  .  .  that  they  may  be  one,  even  as  we  are  one;  I  in  them, 
and  thou  in  me,  that  they  may  be  perfected  into  one;  that  the 
world  may  know."  Let  us  rise  to  the  height  of  that  great  prayer. 
Let  us  contemplate  something  more  vital  than  either  mechanical 
union  or  dead  uniformity,  even  a  unity  living  and  free,  embracing 
distinctions,  differences  in  administration,  opinion,  and  mode  of 
worship,  but  all  made  concordant,  because  taken  up  into  the  large 
harmony  of  the  whole  in  the  one  key  of  a  common  faith  and  the 
common  life  of  the  one  Spirit  in  one  Body.  Present  differences, 
it  is  true,  may  not  be  ignored  or  minimized  beyond  truth.  Let  us 
trust,  however,  beneath  differences  to  find  a  deeper  and  more 
fundamental  agreement  among  all  them  that  love  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  in  sincerity.  Christians  to-day,  as  they  sing  the  same 
hymns  and  pray  in  that  same  blessed  Name,  insensibly  come  to  be 
more  and  more  at  one.  I  have  heard  that  in  the  great  Civil  War, 
one  night,  as  the  hostile  armies  lay  encamped  on  opposite  banks 
of  a  stream,  a  home-sick  lad  began  to  sing  "Home,  Sweet  Home!" 
Other  voices  took  up  the  strain,  at  length  the  whole  regiment,  the 
brigade,  the  division.  Then  the  boys  across  the  stream  joined  in 
and  soon  both  those  armies,  gathered  for  the  deadly  strife  of  that 
cruel  war,  were  singing  the  same  song.  War  and  its  hate  were 
forgotten  while  thoughts  were  far  away  with  the  loved  at  home. 
So  sectarian  strife  is  stilled  in  the  strains  of  common  song  and 
common  thoughts  of  our  best  Friend  and  our  common  home  with 
Him.  Those  who  have  crossed  the  river  and  gone  to  be  with 
Christ,  which  is  far  better,  what  divides  them  from  each  other 
now,  in  that  blessed  presence?  So  even  here,  as  we  draw  more 
closely  to  the  Lord,  we  are  closer  to  each  other.  The  secret  lies 
in  that  which  Wesley  had  found,  in  love  to  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
and  in  His  Spirit  of  life,  in  that  vital  touch  of  Christ  that  makes 
the  whole  world  kin.  The  one  Church  will  realize  her  oneness 
in  proportion  as  her  members  live  in  that  life  that  pulses  from 
the  heart  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  more  and  more  apprehend  with  all 
the  saints  what  is  the  breadth  and  length  and  height  and  depth, 
and  know  the  love  of  Christ  that  passeth  knowledge. 


180  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 


ADDRESS 

BY  BISHOP  EDWAED  GAYER  ANDREWS 

* 
€&e  SDccigtoe  feat  1725 

WITHIN  the  precincts  of  Christ  Church  College,  Oxford,  in 
the  year  of  our  Lord,  1725,  occurred  a  transaction  worthy, 
for  many  reasons,  of  careful  study.  The  preparations  for  it  had 
been  various  and  long  continued;  its  influence  on  the  life  of  man 
and  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth  has  passed  beyond  our  measure- 
ment. Yet  it  was  an  inconspicuous  affair;  the  chief  actor  in  it 
was  unknown  to  fame,  and  the  process  itself  was  largely  in  the 
invisible  realm  of  the  soul. 

A  young  man,  twenty-two  years  of  age,"  having  reached  his 
baccalaureate  in  1724,  is  still  studying  in  the  ancient  University. 

He  had  been  a  fortunate  youth.  The  law  of  heredity  had 
served  him  well.  His  lineage  was  in  the  middle  class  of  English 
life,  to  which  the  Empire  owes  so  much  for  its  achievements  in 
peace  and  war.  Some  remote  ancestors  had  borne  titles.  Their 
younger  sons  may  have  carried  to  the  commonalty,  with  which 
by  English  law  they  were  commingled,  true  knightly  qualities. 
For  several  later  generations  they  had  been  noted  for  intelligence, 
public  spirit,  leadership  in  the  Church,  and  a  courage  that  could 
both  dare  and  suffer. 

What  his  mother  was  in  intellect  and  heart,  how  wisely  she 
trained  her  many  children,  and  how  she  remained  their  revered 
counsellor  till  the  day  that,  obeying  her  injunction,  they  sang  a 
hymn  of  praise  around  her  lifeless  body, — this  has  been  fully 
recited  by  her  biographers,  and  the  record  is  attested  by  her  ex- 
traordinary letters.  Her  virtues,  however,  should  not  obscure 
from  view  the  high  qualities  of  the  father,  his  learning,  his  min- 
isterial fidelity,  his  loyalty  to  conviction,  his  eager  and  unwearied 
devotion  to  the  welfare  of  his  sons.  In  the  Ep worth  rectory  there 
were  poverty,  debt,  suffering;  but  there  were  also  inflexible  prin- 


EDWARD  GAYER  ANDREWS 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  181 

ciple,  intellectual  energy,  household  love,  and  young  life  abundant 
in  vivacity,  wit,  and  the  indescribable  ferment  of  growing  souls. 

After  the  home  came  the  Charterhouse  for  six  years ;  and  then, 
at  the  age  of  seventeen,  Christ  Church  College,  and  at  twenty-one 
the  Bachelor's  degree. 

It  does  not  surprise  us  that  a  youth  of  such  ancestry,  of  such 
home  inspiration  and  training,  and  of  such  opportunity  at  school 
and  university  should  attain  high  rank  in  the  things  for  which 
Oxford  stood.  He  is  known  as  a  young  man  of  the  finest  classical 
attainments  and  taste;  as  a  discriminating  student  of  current 
philosophy ;  as  a  most  skilful  logician ;  as  master  of  a  clear,  idio- 
matic, and  forceful  English ;  as  a  resourceful,  apt,  and  witty  con- 
versationalist, and  as  a  gentleman  eminently  tactful  and  gracious. 
It  is  in  proof  of  his  standing  that  at  twenty-three  years  of  age  he 
was  unanimously  elected  Fellow  of  Lincoln  College  and  made 
Greek  Lecturer  and  Moderator  of  the  Classes.  Obviously  his 
future  is  rich  in  promise. 

What  lacked  he  yet!  Not  a  certain  outward  religiousness,  nor 
yet  a  certain  languid  sincerity.  He  had  not  renounced  or  lost  the 
faith  of  his  fathers.  He  had  not  fallen  into  scandalous  sin.  He 
retained  the  habits  of  his  childhood,  Bible-reading,  prayer,  and 
church  attendance.  Thrice  a  year,  as  required  by  the  University 
statutes,  he  received  the  Holy  Sacrament.  He  deemed  himself 
a  Christian.  But  is  his  manhood  complete?  Does  he  stand  four- 
square to  life,  to  duty,  to  God  ? 

Mr.  Darwin  describes  in  striking  terms  his  own  gradual  loss 
of  power  to  appreciate  music  and  poetry.  Shakespeare  and  Bee- 
thoven, once  enjoyed,  had  become  insipid  and  distasteful.  The 
scientific  faculty  had  overgrown  and  choked  the  aesthetic.  Had 
an  analagous  process  had  place  with  our  Oxford  youth  ?  There 
was  intellectual  fulness  and  force.  There  were  scholarly  habits, 
a  trained  taste,  and  social  skill.  But  what  of  the  spiritual  fac- 
ulty, the  faculty  which  apprehends  and  lives  in  the  world  of  in- 
visible and  imperishable  realities,  the  faculty  which  claims  abso- 
lute supremacy  over  man,  and  brooks  no  divided  empire? 

Certainly  it  was  not  extinct,  nor  yet  paralyzed,  nor  altogether 
dormant.  But  it  moved  feebly  and  fitfully.  Faith  did  not  make 
real  to  him  the  living  God,  Lord  of  Being  and  Master  of  desti- 
nies. Conscience,  God's  most  intimate  presence  in  the  soul,  did 
not  hold  undisputed  sway.  A  Christlike  charity  had  not  ex- 
pelled the  native  selfishness.  The  moral  will  was  neither  ruled 
by  a  divine  authority,  nor  empowered  by  a  divine  inspiration. 
12* 


182  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

The  man  made  for  God  and  righteousness  and  humanity,  lacked 
due  relation  to  them  all. 

But  not  for  long.  A  change  is  at  hand.  Our  young  man  must 
at  length  confront,  as  do  other  young  men,  the  difficult  question 
of  his  life-work.  He  had  studied  hitherto  without  definite  aim. 
Probably  his  predilections  had  been  toward  the  ministry.  This 
had  been  for  three  generations  the  profession  of  his  ancestors. 
It  would  provide  him  a  livelihood.  It  was  unquestionably  use- 
ful. In  its  middle  and  higher  ranges  it  was  even  at  that  time 
eminently  respectable.  It  would  give  opportunity  for  delightful 
study  and  authorship.  It  might  lead  to  high  preferment. 

But  at  first  no  imperative  conviction  urged  to  this  career  j  no 
voice  cried  within  him,  "  Woe  is  me  if  I  preach  not  the  gospel." 
Other  pursuits  beckoned  him.  They  offered  large  rewards  of 
gain  and  fame  and  power.  From  the  walls  of  the  great  Hall  of 
his  college  there  daily  looked  down  on  him  the  faces  of  men,  once 
students  like  himself,  who  had  become  renowned  as  statesmen, 
warriors,  philosophers.  Would  their  laurels  suffer  him  to  sleep! 

It  was  out  of  this  question  of  a  particular  profession  that  Mr. 
Wesley  reached  a  question  vaster  and  more  disquieting,  the  ques- 
tion of  the  whole  intent,  and  law,  and  outcome  of  life.  Here  we 
enter  a  region  of  mystery.  Can  any  one  truly  explain  a  spirit- 
ual awakening?  What  mystic  touch  is  it  that  quickens  the 
dead  soul  ?  What  word,  inaudible  to  others,  recalls  with  new  in- 
terpretation and  new  emphasis  the  lessons  once  heard  from  pa- 
rental lips  ?  The  wind  bloweth, —  but  whence  and  whither  ? 
But  we  know  the  issue.  The  still  small  voice  of  duty  began  to 
be  heard.  Conscience  awoke  and  became  inexorable.  Life  put 
on  solemnity  and  even  awfulness.  The  conflict  of  the  ages  was 
on  once  more.  Another  soul  was  at  its  crisis. 

Had  the  young  Wesley  foreseen  the  eminent  career  to  which 
his  decision  would  introduce  him,  the  decision  might  have  been 
more  easy. 

But  he  could  not  foresee  that  after  a  few  years  Great  Britain 
would  be  profoundly  stirred  and  uplifted  by  the  ministry  of  him- 
self and  his  associates. 

He  could  not  foresee  that  he  would  found  a  Church  which,  be- 
sides its  great  work  in  the  British  Isles,  would  become  a  potent 
factor  in  the  spiritual  life  of  the  New  World,  of  Australia, —  the 
Island  Continent, — and  of  the  vast  modern  missionary  movement. 

He  could  not  foresee  that  after  a  half-century  of  incessant 
toil,  attended  by  much  contempt,  obloquy,  and  brutal  violence, 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  183 

he  would  attain  a  beautiful  and  serene  old  age  full  of  honor  and 
love,  and  after  that  the  triumphant  note  of  his  dying  hour,  "  The 
best  of  all  is,  God  is  with  us." 

He  could  not  foresee  that  the  venerable  Church,  in  which  he 
had  been  reared,  and  which  he  loved  through  all  the  ostracism 
and  bitter  denunciation  which  it  inflicted  upon  him,  which  he 
still  loved  even  when  his  understanding  rejected  its  exclusive 
assumptions,  and  the  necessities  of  his  great  work  compelled  him 
so  to  disobey  its  fundamental  canons  that,  being  himself  only  a 
presbyter,  he  both  ordained  ministers  for  England  and  Scotland, 
and  gave  a  complete  Church  Constitution  to  his  Societies  in 
America,  advising  them  that  since  by  the  Revolution,  to  use  his 
own  words,  "  They  had  been  totally  disentangled  from  the  State 
and  the  English  hierarchy  .  .  .  they  should  stand  fast  in  the  liberty 
wherewith  God  had  so  strangely  made  them  free," — he  could  not 
foresee  that  this  Church  would  become  eager  to  reclaim  her 
erring  son,  and  enroll  him  among  her  saints. 

He  could  not  foresee  that  future  historians  would  rank  him  in 
character  and  influence  above  his  contemporaries,  above  Freder- 
ick, and  Pitt,  and  Clive,  and  Samuel  Johnson,  and  Lord  Mans- 
field. 

Such  visions  were  kindly  withheld  from  the  slender  youth, 
pinched  with  poverty,  and  uncertain  of  the  future,  who  paced  in 
anxious  thought  the  quadrangles  and  the  Broad  Walk  of  Christ 
Church  College,  or  sought  light  and  strength  within  its  noble 
Cathedral  Chapel.  Outside  and  afar,  statesmen  are  busy  with 
wars,  alliances,  parliamentary  votes;  courts,  with  feverish  rival- 
ries and  intrigues;  the  great  world,  with  its  traffic,  literature, 
loves,  and  amusements.  But  here  is  one  human  soul  face  to 
face  with  God,  with  its  irrevocable  past,  with  the  deep  meaning 
of  life,  with  the  limitless  future.  The  question  he  must  decide  is, 
for  himself  at  least,  the  question  of  questions,  and  possibly  for 
the  world  a  question  more  important  than  any  which  were  vex- 
ing the  cabinets  of  kings. 

Carlyle,  in  "  Sartor  Resartus,"  reciting  the  passage  of  Herr 
Teufelsdrockh  from  the  "Everlasting  Nay"  to  the  "Everlasting 
Yea,"  makes  books  the  chief  factor  in  the  change,  and  exclaims, 
"  O  thou  who  art  able  to  write  a  book,  which  once  in  the  two 
centuries  or  oftener  there  is  a  man  gifted  to  do,  envy  not  him 
whom  they  call  city-builder,  and  inexpressibly  pity  him  whom 
they  name  Conqueror  or  City-burner.  Thou  too  art  a  Conqueror 
and  Victor,  but  of  the  true  sort,  namely,  over  the  Devil.  Thou, 


184  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

too,  hast  built  what  will  outlast  all  marble  and  metal  and  be  a 
wonder-bringing  city  of  the  mind,  a  Temple,  and  Sanctuary,  and 
prophetic  Mount,  whereto  all  the  kindreds  of  the  earth  will 
pilgrim." 

Did  the  rugged  Scotsman  have  our  Oxford  student  in  mind 
as  one  of  these  pilgrims?  Possibly.  For  it  is  writ  large  how 
authors,  separated  by  centuries  of  time,  and  even  more  by 
diverse  conditions,  ministered  to  the  questioning  soul. 

Thomas  a  Kempis,  from  monastic  cell  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
issues  "  The  Imitation  of  Christ";  and  the  young  reader  in  1725  says : 
"I  saw  that  simplicity  of  intention,  and  purity  of  affection  .  .  .  are 
indeed  the  wings  of  the  soul  without  which  she  cannot  ascend  to 
God."  Jeremy  Taylor,  beautiful  in  person  and  courtly  in  manner, 
high  in  station,  with  rare  music  of  language  and  opulence  of 
imagination,  in  1650  writes  "The  Rule  and  Exercises  of  Holy 
Living,"  and  his  reader  in  1725  says,  "In  reading  several  parts  of 
this  book  I  was  exceedingly  affected."  And  the  great  declaration 
followed :  "  I  resolved,"  he  says,  "  to  devote  all  my  life  to  God,  all 
my  thoughts  and  words  and  actions,  being  thoroughly  conscious 
that  there  was  no  medium,  but  that  every  part  of  my  life,  not 
some  only,  must  be  a  sacrifice  either  to  God,  or  to  myself,  that  is, 
in  effect,  to  the  Devil." 

It  is  the  supreme  hour.  The  innermost  sanctuary  of  religion  has 
been  reached.  This  day  and  act  determine  a  career  of  sixty-six 
years  of  loyalty  to  God  and  service  to  man  unapproached  in  these 
later  centuries.  The  world  is  a  changed  world  because  of  it.  The 
young  man  little  understood  all  that  was  implicit  in  his  resolve — 
the  self-denial,  obloquy,  toil,  and  hardship  of  the  next  thirteen 
years,  until  he  should  return  from  his  mission  to  Georgia  colo- 
nists, negroes,  and  Indians;  his  dissatisfaction  on  his  return 
with  others,  but  much  more  with  himself,  despite  his  unfaltering 
consecration ;  and  then  his  emergence  into  the  light  and  life  of  a 
realized  salvation;  and  still  beyond,  a  half -century  of  buoyant, 
unintermitted  and  ever-triumphant  ministerial  service.  But  all 
this,  the  solemn  compact  made  in  Christ  Church  College  held  in 
its  closed  hand. 

Every  age  and  every  land  have  witnessed  counterparts  of  this 
sublime  act  and  of  its  results.  Passing  by  the  misguided  but 
sincere  Buddha  by  the  Ganges,  the  irrevocable  choice  of  Moses 
by  the  Nile,  and  the  surrender  on  the  plain  of  Damascus  of  Saul 
of  Tarsus  to  his  Lord  newly  revealed  from  Heaven,  we  come  to 
later  parallels. 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  185 

In  the  year  1505,  in  the  University  of  Erfurt,  at  that  time 
chief  of  the  schools  of  Germany,  was  a  young  Master  of  Arts  and 
Doctor  of  Philosophy,  twenty-two  years  of  age,  a  candidate  for 
the  bar,  able,  genial,  vital  in  every  part.  Music  and  verse  and 
social  joy  interspaced  severe  studies  in  scholastic  authors  and 
the  masterpieces  of  antiquity.  The  University  admired  him ;  life 
lay  fair  before  him.  But  a  Vulgate  Bible  was  discovered  in  the 
library  and  was  read  with  intense  surprise  and  delight.  Alarms 
by  sickness  and  the  sudden  death  of  young  friends  aided  in 
awakening  his  conscience.  Mysterious  spiritual  impulsions  fell 
on  him, — and  all  these  marshal  him  to  the  supreme  test.  He,  too, 
is  not  disobedient  to  the  heavenly  vision.  He  takes  the  unalter- 
able resolution.  No  one  knows  the  solemn  act.  It  is  between 
himself,  his  conscience,  and  his  God.  He  calls  his  University 
friends  to  a  frugal  but  cheerful  supper.  There  is  gay  and  witty 
conversation ;  there  is  serious  disputation ;  there  is  music ;  there 
is  rising  exhilaration  of  spirit.  Then  stands  up  the  young  Luther 
and  to  the  astonished  company  declares  the  purpose  which  severs 
his  past  life  with  all  its  aims  and  hopes  from  the  life  which  is  to 
be.  Remonstrance  and  persuasion  cannot  move  him.  He  bids 
his  friends  adieu ;  and  that  night  betakes  himself  to  the  Augus- 
tinian  convent,  and  to  a  career,  then  undiscerned,  which  was  to 
change  the  face  of  the  world,  as  well  as  the  destiny  of  innumer- 
able souls. 

A  student  in  another  English  University,  on  his  twenty-second 
birth-night  puts  on  record  a  like  experience.  It  is  Charles  Kings- 
ley  who  writes:  "My  birth-night.  I  have  been  for  the  last  hour 
on  the  seashore,  not  dreaming,  but  thinking  deeply  and  strongly, 
and  forming  determinations  which  are  to  affect  my  destiny 
through  time  and  through  eternity.  Before  the  sleeping  earth, 
and  the  sleepless  sea  and  stars,  I  have  devoted  myself  to  God,  a 
vow  never  (if  He  gives  me  the  faith  I  pray  for)  to  be  recalled." 

Do  such  transactions  belong  only  to  Oriental  lands,  or  Euro- 
pean universities?  Let  a  neighboring  university  answer.  In 
1831,  Horace  Bushnell,  though  ready  for  the  bar,  and  having  no 
ordinary  ambition  for  its  prizes,  is  tutor  in  Yale  College.  His 
religious  profession  was  little  more  than  a  decorous  morality. 
But  in  the  midst  of  a  great  religious  awakening,  he  too  must 
face  the  supreme  question.  A  silent,  painful  struggle  ensued. 
At  length  he  gave  answer,  and  with  a  definiteness  and  positive- 
ness  sufficiently  indicated  by  the  test  which  he  unhesitatingly  ap- 
plied to  himself.  In  a  style  prophetic  of  that  of  his  later  years, 


186  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

he  says:  "Have  I  ever  consented  to  be,  and  am  I  really  now, 
in  the  right,  as  in  principle  and  supreme  law;  to  live  for  it;  to 
make  any  sacrifice  it  will  cost  me ;  to  believe  everything  it  will 
bring  me  to  see;  to  be  a  confessor  of  Christ  as  it  appears  to  be 
enjoined  on  me;  to  go  on  a  mission  to  the  world's  end  if  due 
conviction  sends  me ;  to  change  my  occupation  for  good  con- 
science' sake;  to  repair  whatever  wrong  I  have  done  to  another; 
to  be  humbled,  if  I  should,  before  my  worst  enemy ;  to  do  com- 
plete justice  to  God,  and,  if  I  could,  to  all  worlds, — in  a  word  to 
be  in  wholly  right  intent,  and  have  no  mind  but  this  forever." 

But  we  need  not  travel  so  far,  even  as  New  Haven,  for  illus- 
tration. On  yonder  hill  reposes  all  that  is  mortal  of  two  men 
eminent  in  the  early  history  of  this  University,  its  first  and  third 
presidents.  Both  were  born  under  the  shadow  of  the  Green 
Mountains.  Both  grew  in  homes  that  were  intelligent,  respected, 
and  influential.  Both  saw  in  these  homes  the  vigor  of  Christian 
principle  and  the  beauty  of  the  Christian  spirit.  Both  labored 
for  years  on  rugged  New  England  farms.  The  first,  however,  was 
found  unequal  to  such  tasks,  and  turned  to  study.  The  other, 
endowed  with  a  massive  frame,  bore  into  college  life  a  stalwart 
strength  which  only  failed  because  subjected  for  a  while  to  ex- 
traordinary exactions  and  neglects.  The  physical  difference  thus 
indicated  was  the  index  of  differing  mental  constitutions  and 
temperaments.  The  one  was  gentle,  graceful,  orderly,  persuasive, 
with  an  eloquence  clear,  tender,  often  melting  in  its  pathos. 
The  other  was  massive  in  argument,  forceful,  impassioned,  cogent 
in  appeal,  overwhelming,  a  very  Niagara  of  irresistible  speech. 
Their  portraits  in  the  University  Library  indicate  these  contrasts. 
Both  did  their  life-work  under  the  limitations  of  ill  health.  Both 
graduated,  the  one  at  Brown  University,  the  other  at  Middlebury 
College,  with  high  honors,  but  without  religious  purpose.  Both 
turned  toward  the  legal  profession.  Both  taught  for  a  while,  the 
one  in  Maryland,  the  other  in  South  Carolina. 

But  God  is  everywhere;  all  human  souls  are  made  for  him,  and 
cannot  rest  without  him;  far  and  wide  the  Shepherd  seeks  his 
wandering  sheep.  And  so  Fisk,  broken  by  sickness,  returned  to 
his  loved  Vermont,  there  to  meet  and  settle  at  once  the  question 
of  questions,  and  at  once  to  begin  a  ministry  in  the  pulpit  and 
the  school,  continually  growing  more  beautiful  and  beneficent. 
Those  who  heard  his  last  sermons,  delivered  as  he  sat,  because  of 
weakness,  in  the  pulpit  of  the  former  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
in  this  city,  were  wont  to  speak  of  the  lucidity  and  richness  of 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  187 

their  thought,  of  their  suasiveness,  of  the  atmosphere  of  heaven 
which  pervaded  them.  Because  he  chose  aright,  he  lives  in  the 
institutions  he  aided  to  found  and  in  the  souls  which  he  aided  to 
fashion. 

Of  the  time  and  the  circumstances  in  which  Olin  came  to  the 
great  decision  I  will  not  speak,  nor  of  the  immediate  change  which 
it  wrought  in  his  professional  plans.  Both  are  set  forth  in  his 
"Life  and  Letters."  Rather  let  me  recall,  as  some  few  others 
here  present  may  be  able  to  do,  that  most  impressive  bac- 
calaureate sermon  which  he  preached  before  the  class  of  1845,  on 
the  text  which  sums  up  the  address  I  have  made, — "  Put  ye  on 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  make  not  provision  for  the  flesh,  to 
fulfill  the  lusts  thereof." 

Few  that  heard  it  would  attempt  to  describe  the  wide  vision, 
the  lofty  passion,  the  force,  the  majesty,  the  divine  inspiration  of 
that  deliverance.  Few  that  heard  it  could  evade  the  sweep  and 
authority  of  some  of  its  later  sentences.  Let  these  close  this 
address : 

"Even  in  common  life,  we  do  not  hesitate  to  pronounce  the 
most  unfavorable  auguries  of  an  educated  young  man,  who,  in 
his  plans  of  life  makes  an  over-careful  provision  for  self-indulg- 
ence and  an  exemption  from  severe  toils  and  trials.  If  he  will 
not  push  from  the  shore  till  he  has  taken  pledges  for  a  smooth 
sea  and  a  favorable  breeze — if  he  must,  at  all  events,  have  sump- 
tuous fare,  and  fine  linen,  and  houses  of  cedar,  he  insists  on 
conditions  which  neither  Heaven  nor  earth  will  grant,  and  which 
are  wholly  incompatible  with  the  performance  of  great  actions,  or 
the  formation  of  great  characters.  In  religion,  this  timid,  selfish 
spirit,  to  whatever  extent  it  may  exist,  is  in  itself  a  mortal  sin. 
We  may  not  inquire  too  anxiously  what  Christ  will  demand  of  us 
in  return  for  the  blood  he  has  shed  and  the  heaven  he  has 
prepared  for  us;  but  we  know  he  will  have  nothing  less  than 
entire  consecration;  and  that  we  are  to  be  ever  ready  'not  only 
to  be  bound,  but  also  to  die,  for  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus.' n 


188  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

ADDRESS 

BY  PRESIDENT  WILLIAM  JEWETT  TUCKER 


THE  benefactors  of  the  race  through  education  are  chiefly  of 
three  types :  first,  those  who  give  permanency  and  scope  to 
education  by  endowments;  second,  those  who  enlarge  the  sphere 
of  truth  by  discovery  or  by  fearless  thinking,  and  who  make 
it  more  accessible  through  their  power  to  communicate;  third, 
those  who  create  mind,  usually  by  uplifting  some  considerable 
area  of  human  life  into  the  region  of  mental  aspiration.  Among 
benefactors  of  the  last  type  I  put  John  Wesley,  and  the  place 
which  I  believe  should  be  assigned  to  him  there  is  a  very  high 
place. 

A  single  contrast  will  illustrate  my  meaning.  The  inventions 
of  the  eighteenth  century  gave,  as  we  well  know,  a  new  popula- 
tion to  England,  and,  ultimately,  a  vast  increase  to  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  race.  Probably  no  one  secondary  cause  ever  contributed 
so  clearly  to  the  increase  of  population  as  the  factory  system. 
But  if  the  breath  of  spiritual  life  had  not  blown  upon  this  mass 
with  its  recreative  power  the  era  of  popular  intelligence  would 
have  been  delayed,  and,  if  too  long  delayed,  made  impossible.  I 
know  of  nothing  more  timely  in  the  interest  of  popular  or  of  the 
higher  education  than  the  arrival  of  John  Wesley  on  the  field  at 
the  same  time  with  the  master  minds  who  were  to  create  modern 
industry.  The  numerical  expansion  of  a  race  must  have  some  well- 
defined  and  far-reaching  cause,  but  its  mental  elevation  belongs 
to  another  order  and  realm  of  power.  And  if  a  man  who  is  born 
and  bred  to  tend  a  machine  is  to  become  a  thinking  being,  and 
his  children  after  him  are  to  rise  to  the  same  plane,  both  he  and 
they  must  come  under  the  operation  of  this  higher  power.  Of 
course  the  immediate  effect  of  the  Wesleyan  revival  was  not  in- 
tellectual. It  was  not  Wesley's  first  intention  to  make  scholars 
or  thinkers,  but  renewed  and  sanctified  men  and  women.  But 
the  long  result  of  the  movement  was  a  vast  accession  of  mental 
power  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  no  inconsiderable  part  of  which 


WILLIAM  JEWETT  TUCKER 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  189 

is  expressed  in  the  terms  of  education.  Your  own  University 
and  all  kindred  schools  were  hidden  in  the  creative  energy  of 
Wesley,  as  truly  as  Harvard  and  Yale  lay  in  the  loins  of  Puri- 
tanism. 

I  recall  this  indirect  but  specific  contribution  of  John  Wes- 
ley to  education  because  it  gives  us,  as  it  seems  to  me,  a  much- 
needed  reminder  of  the  true  relationship  of  spiritual  to  intellec- 
tual power. 

The  function  of  the  spiritual  is  to  create,  sometimes  directly, 
more  frequently  through  those  conditions  which  ensure  mental  de- 
velopment and  progress.  The  spiritual  is  the  only  power  which 
has  enough  propulsion  in  it  to  force  the  unused  mind  into 
action.  It  is  thus  possible  to  cause  people  to  think  on  the  great- 
est subjects  who  have  never  been  able  to  think  on  lesser  subjects. 
This  is  the  common  experience  of  a  religious  awakening.  To 
quote  a  definition  of  preaching,  given  by  a  disciple  of  Wesley, 
whom  I  have  not  been  able  to  locate  otherwise,  "Preaching  is 
making  men  think,  and  feel  in  proportion  to  their  thinking." 
Results  of  this  kind  from  this  source  are  individual  and  phe- 
nomenal, but  the  plain  fact  is  that  whenever  the  spiritual  gets  into 
a  race  or  into  a  stock  the  result  is  mental  growth,  and  with 
mental  growth  there  come  all  those  great  demands  which  are  in 
themselves  so  large  a  part  of  modern  civilization.  The  first 
generation  which  feels  the  sudden  application  of  spiritual  power 
makes  answer  through  phenomena  often  startling,  as  in  the  days 
of  Wesley,  but  the  second  generation  and  those  which  follow  show 
the  effect  in  the  steadiness  and  momentum  of  intellectual  strength, 
provided,  of  course,  the  spiritual  is  not  afraid  of  its  own  creation. 
The  spiritual  is  at  its  best  when  it  works  in  creative  freedom ;  it  is 
at  its  worst  when  it  attempts  to  regulate,  restrict,  or  hinder  the  hu- 
man mind.  If  the  spiritual  becomes  cowardly  in  the  presence  of 
the  intellect  which  it  has  aroused,  and  seeks  to  deny  or  ignore  its 
action,  the  end  has  come.  No  spiritual  movement  can  long  abide 
such  inconsistency.  I  find  one  of  the  chief  signs  of  the  abiding 
strength  of  Wesleyanism  in  the  fact  that  it  has  shown  on  the 
whole  less  cowardice  than  any  faith  of  like  expansion,  in  the 
midst  of  the  overwhelming  mental  activities  of  our  present 
civilization. 

Keeping  in  mind  the  part  which  the  spiritual  takes  in  the 
creation  of  mind  there  are,  as  it  seems  to  me,  two  respects  in 
which  we  need  to  reestablish  the  relation  of  the  spiritual  to  the 
intellectual  in  our  educational  work.  We  need  the  support  of 


190  WESLEY  BICENTENNIAL 

the  spiritual  at  the  two  extremes  of  education,  the  lowest  and 
the  highest.  At  the  lowest  stages  of  education  our  greatest 
difficulty  is  to  create  an  atmosphere  of  faith  in  which  we  may 
work  with  constant  efficiency.  We  have  gotten  pretty  far  away 
from  the  eighteenth-century  conception  of  human  nature  with  its 
theory  of  inborn  rights,  if  we  have  not  fully  accepted  in  its  place 
the  theory  of  human  rights  as  won  only,  as  Professor  Royce  has 
said,  "in  the  tragic  struggle  for  existence."  We  find  our 
interests  centring  in  those  who  win  or  in  those  who  are  likely 
to  win.  Nothing  is  too  good  for  the  boy  or  girl  who  is  able  to 
show  that  his  or  her  education  is  a  paying  investment.  But  the 
individual  who  can  show  this,  if  not  the  exception,  does  not 
represent  the  majority.  Now,  the  tremendous  distinction  of  the 
work  of  John  Wesley  lay  in  his  power  to  vivify  the  common- 
place. We  are  not  doing  this.  We  do  not  seem  to  have  the 
power  to  do  this.  The  power  is  spiritual,  not  intellectual  alone. 
It  means  more  than  good  systems  of  education,  more  than  good 
teaching.  It  means  that  quickening  of  intelligence  which  is  akin 
to  creative  force.  It  means  the  realization  of  that  fine  old  con- 
ception of  master  and  scholar  which  has  at  last  been  taken  out  of 
the  margin  and  incorporated  into  the  text  of  our  Bibles  —  "him 
that  awaketh  and  him  that  answereth."  Here  lies  the  task  in  the 
education  of  a  democracy.  We  may  train  the  elect,  but  that  is 
not  educating  a  democracy.  We  educate  a  democracy  only  as  we 
have  power  to  vivify  the  commonplace. 

At  the  other  extreme  our  greatest  difficulty  is  to  furnish  men 
with  the  sufficient  motive.  If  it  be  asked,  what  are  sufficient 
motives  for  the  highest  educational  training,  I  answer  the  love  of 
truth,  the  love  of  man,  or  the  love  of  those  causes  and  interests 
in  which  both  man  and  truth  are  concerned.  Of  these  motives  the 
love  of  truth  in  the  form  of  scientific  research  is  now  most  con- 
spicuous. It  is  the  distinguishing  glory  of  the  higher  scholar- 
ship of  the  present  generation.  It  is  at  once  the  path  and  the 
incentive  through  which  we  are  able  to  enter  the  region  of  the 
ideal  in  education.  As  for  the  other  motives,  they  are  relatively 
inactive.  They  exist,  and  at  times  flame  out  in  individual  careers, 
but  they  have  not  the  same  power  as  at  some  other  times.  The 
abstract  terms  which  fascinate  the  mind  of  the  scholar  are  not 
such  terms  as  justice  and  freedom,  nor  does  the  embodiment  of 
these  and  like  terms  in  the  State  make  them  more  alluring.  The 
alluring,  the  fascinating  word  in  modern  scholarship  is  origi- 
nality. It  is  a  brave  as  well  as  an  alluring  word,  and  puts  heart 


WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  191 

into  many  a  toiler,  but  it  must  be  confessed  that  it  belongs  only 
on  the  higher  ranges  of  scholarship.  The  average  scholar — I  am 
not  speaking  of  the  average  student — the  average  scholar  is  not 
original.  And  when  he  strains  after  originality  his  mind  shows 
the  same  effects  of  strain  which  are  always  to  be  seen  when  the 
end  is  unattainable.  One  deplores  the  absence  of  certain  motives, 
which,  if  alive  and  active,  would  fit  the  mind  of  the  average 
scholar  and  give  it  enlargement  and  power.  It  is  growing  harder 
to  hold  the  present-day  scholar  to  the  breadth  and  humanity  of 
his  calling,  just  as  it  is  growing  harder  to  hold  the  trained  and 
educated  man  anywhere  to  the  breadth  and  humanity  of  his  call- 
ing. For  the  influences  which  give  openness  of  mind,  the  forces 
which  actually  enlarge  the  mind  and  give  it  the  great  dimensions 
are  spiritual,  not  merely  intellectual.  Education,  viewed  as  a 
system  of  intellectual  forces,  is  not  able  to  get  itself  into  motion, 
and  it  is  not  able  unaided  to  reach  the  height  of  its  own  proper 
ambition.  It  is  the  spiritual  within  us  which  sends  us  to  school, 
and  once  there,  it  is  the  same  power  which  gives  us  the  full  and 
free  advantage  of  our  minds. 

It  is  good  for  us  therefore,  in  the  midst  of  the  various  academic 
functions  which  close  the  year,  to  listen  to  a  voice  which  speaks 
to  us  from  another  century  with  a  somewhat  different  tone,  but 
with  the  unmistakable  accent  of  reality.  It  is  the  voice  of  a  man 
who  has  earned  the  right  to  be  heard  not  only  in  the  church  but 
in  the  school,  the  college,  the  university.  And  the  message  of 
John  Wesley  to  those  of  us  who  are  in  the  business  of  education, 
as  I  interpret  it,  is  this :  as  educators  of  a  democracy  learn  to 
vivify  the  commonplace;  as  educators  of  the  elect  make  sure  that 
as  you  keep  the  mind  open  to  truth  you  keep  the  heart  open  to 
humanity. 


APPENDIX 


13 


COMMITTEES 


Committee^* 


General  Committee. 

(Trustees.}  (Academic  Council.} 

GEORGE  G.  REYNOLDS.  WILLIAM  N.  RICE. 

BRADFORD  P.  RAYMOND.  WILBUR  O.  ATWATER. 

HENRY  C.  M.  INGRAHAM.  CALEB  T.  WINCHESTER. 

WILLIAM  E.  SESSIONS.  MORRIS  B.  CRAWFORD. 

JOHN  H.  COLEMAN.  HERBERT  W.  CONN. 

(Alumni.} 
DAVID  G.  DOWNEY. 
WILLIAM  V.  KELLEY. 
F.  MASON  NORTH. 
FRANK  D.  BEATTYS. 
GEORGE  W.  DAVISON. 


Committee  on  Programme. 

WILLIAM  N.  RICE.  BRADFORD  P.  RAYMOND. 

CALEB  T.  WINCHESTER.  WILLIAM  V.  KELLEY. 


Committee  on  Invitations. 

WILLIAM  N.  RICE.  JOHN  M.  VAN  VLECK. 

CALEB  T.  WINCHESTER.  A.  CAMPBELL  ARMSTRONG. 

FRANK  W.  NICOLSON. 


Committee  on  Entertainment. 

WILLIAM  J.  JAMES.  WILBUR  0.  ATWATER. 

HERBERT  W.  CONN.  WALTER  P.  BRADLEY. 

FREDERICK  W.  MARVEL. 
13*  197 


198  APPENDIX 

Committee  on  Commencement  Luncheon. 

CALEB  T.  WINCHESTER.  WILBUR  0.  ATWATER. 

JAMES  M.  PATON.  FREDERICK  W.  MARVEL. 


Committee  on  Publications. 

MORRIS  B.  CRAWFORD.  BRADFORD  P.  RAYMOND. 

CALEB  T.  WINCHESTER.  WILBUR  0.  ATWATER. 


Committee  on  Campus  Rally. 

(Faculty.) 

BRADFORD  P.  RAYMOND.  WILLIAM  N.  RICE. 

CALEB  T.  WINCHESTER.  MORRIS  B.  CRAWFORD. 

WALTER  P.  BRADLEY. 

( Undergraduates.) 

JAMES  G.  BERRIEN.  GEORGE  T.  AMES. 

THOMAS  P.  BEYER.  ALFRED  A.  GUSTAFSON. 

MAX  F.  HOWLAND.  WILLIAM  S.  JACKSON. 

FLOYD  S.  LEACH.  ROBERT  R.  LEWIS. 


Committee  on  Procession,  Seating,  etc. 

WILLIAM  N.  RICE.  CALEB  T.  WINCHESTER. 

MORRIS  B.  CRAWFORD.  WALTER  P.  BRADLEY. 

FRANK  W.  NICOLSON. 

Marshals. 
MORRIS  B.  CRAWFORD.  WALTER  P.  BRADLEY. 


FORMS   OF   INVITATION,  CIRCULARS, 

ANNOUNCEMENTS 


APPENDIX  201 


[Invitation  to  Otlwr  Institutions.] 

The  Trustees  and  Faculty  of 

Wesleyan  University 

have  the  honor  to  invite 

[Name  of  the  Institution] 

to  be  represented  by  a  delegate 

at  the  Celebration  of  the 
Two  hundredth  Anniversary  of  the  Birth  of 

John  Wesley 

to  be  held  in 

Middletown,  Connecticut 

June  twenty-eighth  to  July  first 

nineteen  hundred  and  three 


202  APPENDIX 


[Invitation  to  Specially  Invited  Guests.] 


The  Trustees  and  Faculty  of 

Wesleyan  University 

have  the  honor  to  invite  you  to  be  present 

at  the  Celebration  of  the 
Two  hundredth  Anniversary  of  the  Birth  of 

John  Wesley 

to  be  held  in 

Middletoum,  Connecticut 

June  twenty-eighth  to  July  first 

nineteen  hundred  and  three 


APPENDIX 


203 


204 


APPENDIX 


APPENDIX  205 

[Circular  sent  to  Alumni.] 

Wesleyan  University. 
* 

Committee 

on  the  entertainment  of 
Commencement  Visitors. 

Middletown,  May  12,  1903. 

My  dear  Sir : 

The  Committee  on  Entertainment  desires  to  make  as  satisfactory 
arrangements  as  possible  for  the  accommodation  of  Commencement 
visitors.  This  can  be  done  only  in  so  far  as  the  alumni  cooperate 
by  promptly  sending  information  as  to  their  intentions. 

Will  you  Mndly  aid  the  Committee  by  signifying  on  the  enclosed 
card  whether  or  not  you  intend  to  be  present  at  the  Bicentennial 
exercises  ?  If  you  have  already  arranged  for  accommodations,  please 
give  the  location  of  your  room,  as  the  cards  when  returned  are  to  be 
filed  and  used  as  a  directory. 

A  small  number  of  rooms  will  be  available  in  the  hotels  of  the 
city.  For  those  who  may  apply,  the  Committee  can  secure  a  limited 
number  of  rooms  in  private  houses.  The  rent  of  rooms  accommo- 
dating two  persons  will  vary  from  $1.00  to  $2.00  a  day,  the  latter 
rate  being  the  general  one.  Assignments  to  rooms  will  be  made  in 
the  order  of  application.  It  is  important,  therefore,  that  applica- 
tions should  be  made  at  an  early  date  and  it  is  suggested  that,  as 
far  as  possible,  two  persons  arrange  to  occupy  a  room  together.  It 
is  requested  that  those  who  secure  rooms  through  the  Committee  will 
settle  directly  with  the  persons  from  whom  they  are  rented,  as  the 
Committee  cannot  undertake  any  financial  responsibility  in  the 
matter. 

Excellent  hotel  accommodations  may  be  secured  in  the  Russwin, 
New  Britain,  and  in  the  following  Hartford  hotels :  Allyn  House, 
Hotel  Hartford,  and  Hotel  Heublein.  Rooms  in  these  hotels  may  be 
secured  by  direct  application.  The  last  train  to  New  Britain  and 
Hartford  leaves  Middletown  on  week  days  at  9 : 50  P.  M.,  although, 
if  there  is  sufficient  demand,  a  special  train  may  be  run  Monday  and 
Tuesday  evenings,  leaving  Middletown  at  a  later  hour. 

The  eating  clubs  of  the  seven  college  fraternities  will  supply  meals 
at  reasonable  rates  to  their  own  alumni.  The  College  Commons 
will  furnish  meals  to  visitors  as  far  as  accommodations  permit. 
Meals  will  be  supplied  at  Webb  Hall  to  women  graduates  and  their 


206  APPENDIX 

friends.  The  rates  charged  at  the  College  Commons  and  at  Webb 
Hall  will  be  $1.00  a  day.  The  hotels  and  restaurants  and  a  few 
private  families  will  also  furnish  board  at  rates  varying  from  80 
cents  to  $1.50  a  day.  Infilling  out  the  enclosed  card  please  indicate 
the  place  where  you  wish  to  take  your  meals. 

At  your  earliest  convenience  after  your  arrival  in  Middletown  you 
are  reguested  to  register  at  the  Library,  where  the  Committee  will 
establish  a  Bureau  of  Information. 

The  Commencement  Luncheon  will  be  open  this  year  to  alumni 
and  to  officially  invited  guests  only,  each  alumnus  being  entitled  to 
one  ticket.  The  accommodations  are  limited  and  tickets  will  be 
assigned  in  order  of  application.  Order  a  ticket  now  by  means  of 
the  enclosed  card  and  it  will  be  reserved  for  you  until  9  A.  M.,  Tues- 
day^ June  30.  After  that  hour  it  will  be  subject  to  reassignment. 
Tickets  must  be  called  for  in  person  at  the  Library. 

Your  especial  attention  is  called  to  the  enclosed  programme  of  ex- 
ercises and  the  circular  concerning  railroad  rates. 

Fill  out  the  enclosed  postal  card  in  full  and  mail  it  NOW. 

W.  J.  James, 
W.  0.  Atwater, 
H.  W.  Conn, 
W.  P.  Bradley, 
F.  W.  Marvel 


[Private  Mailing  Card  sent  with  above  Circular.] 

I  do expect  to  be  present  during  Commencement  week,  1903, 

reaching  Middletown  on  June ,  and  remaining  for days.    I 

shall  &e  accompanied  by 

Please  reserve room     for  me  and  secure  board  for  me  at 

[J  have  already  secured  a  room  at 

Street.]     Please  do reserve  a  luncheon 

ticket  for  me  until  9  a.m.,  Tuesday,  June  30. 

Name, Class, 

Address, 

The  Committee  will  endeavor  to  secure, rooms  and  board,  but  cannot  guarantee  either. 


APPENDIX  207 

[Marshal's  Notice.] 

WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY. 

* 
WESLEY   BICENTENNIAL 

¥ 

MARSHAL'S  NOTICE 

SUNDAY,  JUNE  28TH,  BACCALAUREATE  SERVICE. 

The  Trustees,  Faculty,  Representatives  of  other  Institutions 
and  other  Specially  Invited  Guests,  with  the  Graduating  Class, 
will  meet  in  the  Chapel  of  the  Methodist  Church  at  10  A.  M., 
and  pass  thence  in  procession  into  the  church. 

Academic  costume  will  be  worn  by  the  Faculty  and  Graduating 
Class,  and  will  be  appropriate  for  Invited  Guests. 

WEDNESDAY,  JULY  IST,  COMMENCEMENT. 

1.  If  the  weather  permit,  the  Commencement  procession  will 
form  on  the  Campus.  For  this  purpose  the  Trustees,  Faculty, 
Representatives  of  other  Institutions  and  other  Specially  Invited 
Guests,  the  Graduating  Class,  and,  in  addition,  ALL  ALUMNI 
will  meet  at  9:30  A.  M.,  in  the  following  places,  viz.: 

THE  TRUSTEES,  FACULTY,  REPRESENTATIVES  OF  OTHER 
INSTITUTIONS,  AND  OTHER  INVITED  GUESTS,  IN  THE  COL- 
LEGE LIBRARY  ; 

»        THE  ALUMNI  IN  THE  LOWER  CHAPEL  ; 

THE  MEN  OF  THE  GRADUATING  CLASS  IN  12  SOUTH 
COLLEGE. 

$3T  WOMEN  REPRESENTING  OTHER  INSTITUTIONS,  ALUMNA 
OF  WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY,  AND  THE  WOMEN  OF  THE 
GRADUATING  CLASS,  WILL  JOIN  THE  PROCESSION  AT  THE 
MIDDLESEX,  MEETING  THERE  FOR  THIS  PURPOSE,  NOT 
LATER  THAN  10  O'CLOCK,  IN  ROOMS  4  AND  6  ON  THE 
GROUND  FLOOR. 


208  APPENDIX 

2.  IN  CASE  OF  RAIN  the  procession  will  be  formed  at  the  Mid- 
dlesex. The  signal  announcing  this  change  of  plan  will  be  the 
tolling  of  the  college  bell  at  9  :  30  A.  M.  In  this  case,  those  who 
would  otherwise  form  in  procession  on  the  Campus,  will  assemble 
not  later  than  10  o'clock,  at  the  Middlesex,  the  Trustees,  Faculty, 
and  Invited  Guests  meeting  in  the  Pythian  Hall,  and  the  Alumni 
and  the  Men  of  the  Graduating  Class  in  Orpheus  Hall,  on  the 
third  floor  of  the  Middlesex  building.  Women  will  meet  as  in- 
dicated under  (1). 

Academic  costume  will  be  worn  at  Commencement. 


of  Commencement  $roceg£ion. 


GRADUATING  CLASS. 

ALUMNI,  Classes    1876-1902,  in   order  of   Graduation,  OLDER 

Classes  leading. 
ALUMNA. 

ALUMNI,  Classes  1833-1875  in  order  of  Graduation,  YOUNGER 
Classes  leading. 

INVITED  GUESTS  not  representing  other  Universities,  Colleges,  or 
Professional  Schools. 

REPRESENTATIVES  of  other  Universities,  Colleges,  and  Profes- 
sional Schools. 

FACULTY  OF  WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY,  present  and  former  mem- 
bers. 

TRUSTEES  OF  WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY. 

SPEAKERS  of  the  day. 

GUESTS  specially  designated. 

His  EXCELLENCY  THE  GOVERNOR  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

PRESIDENT  OF  WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY. 


LIST  OF  VISITORS 


14 


of 


Amherst  College, 

Professor  LEVI  HENBY  ELWELL. 

Bates  College, 

Professor  ARTHUR  NEWTON  LEONARD. 

Berkeley  Divinity  School, 
Dean  JOHN  BINNEY, 
Vice-Dean  SAMUEL  HART. 

Boston  University, 

Acting  President  WILLIAM  EDWARDS  HUNTINGTON. 

Boston  University,  School  of  Theology, 

Prof  essor  JOHN  MARSHALL  BARKER. 

Brown  University, 

Professor  FRANCIS  GREENLEAF  ALLINSON. 

Columbia  University, 

Professor  SAMUEL  TRAIN  DUTTON. 

Cornell  University, 

Professor  GEORGE  WILLIAM  JONES. 

Dartmouth  College, 

President  WILLIAM  JEWETT  TUCKER, 
Professor  FRED  PARKER  EMERY. 

Denver  University, 

Professor  AMMI  BRADFORD  HYDE. 

Dickinson  College, 

President  GEORGE  EDWARD  REED. 

Drew  Theological  Seminary, 

President  HENRY  ANSON  BUTTZ. 

Garrett  Biblical  Institute, 

Professor  CHARLES  MACAULAY  STUART. 

Hartford  Theological  Seminary, 

Acting  President  MELANCTHON  WILLIAMS  JACOBUS. 
211 


212  APPENDIX 

Harvard  University, 

President  CHARLES  WILLIAM  ELIOT. 

Harvard  University,  Divinity  School, 

Professor  WILLIAM  WALLACE  FENK. 

Hobart  College, 

Professor  NORMAN  EVERETT  GILBERT. 

Johns  HopTiins  University, 

President  IRA  REMSEN. 

University  of  Maine, 

Professor  KARL  POMEROY  HARRINGTON. 

Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology, 

Professor  WILLIAM  HARMON  NILES. 

University  of  Michigan, 

Professor  HENRY  SMITH  CARHART. 

Middlebury  College, 

Professor  WILLIAM  WESLEY  McGiLTON. 

The  University  of  Mt.  Allison  College, 
President  DAVID  ALLISON. 

Mt.  Holyoke  College, 

President  MAKY  EMMA  WOOLLEY. 

New  York  University, 

Professor  ISAAC  FRANKLIN  RUSSELL. 

Northwestern  University, 

Professor  CHAKLES  MACATTLAY  STUART. 

Oberlin  College, 

Professor  JOHN  FISHER  PECK. 

Ohio  Wesleyan  University, 

President  JAMES  WHITFORD  BASHFORD. 

Princeton  University, 

President  WOODROW  WILSON, 
Professor  HENRY  VAN  DYKE. 

Eandolph-Macon  College, 

President  ROBERT  EMORY  BLACKWELL. 

Theological  Seminary  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  America 
at  New  Brunswick,  N.  J. 

President  JOHN  PRESTON  SEARLE. 


APPENDIX  213 

Smith  College, 

President  LAURENUS  CLARK  SEELYE. 

Trinity  College, 

President  GEORGE  WILLIAMSON  SMITH. 

Union  Theological  Seminary, 

Professor  GEORGE  WILLIAM  KNOX. 

Union  University, 

Dean  BENJAMIN  H.  RIPTON. 

Vassar  College, 

Professor  AARON  Louis  TREADWELL. 

University  of  Vermont, 

President  MATTHEW  HENRY  BUCKHAM. 

Wellesley  College, 

Miss  EDNA  VIRGINIA  MOFFETT. 

Wells  College, 

Dean  HELEN  FAIRCHILD  SMITH. 

Williams  College, 

Professor  HENRY  DANIEL  WILD. 

Yale  University, 

Reverend  FRANK  KNIGHT  SANDERS,  Dean  of  the  Divinity  School. 
Professor  WILLIAM  HENRY  BREWER. 


Centenary  Collegiate  Institute,  Hackettstown,  N.  J., 
Principal  EUGENE  ALLEN  NOBLE. 

Middletown  High  School,  Middletown,  Conn., 
Principal  WALTER  BIXBY  FERGUSON. 

New  Hampshire  Conference  Seminary,  Tilton,  JV.  H., 
Principal  GEORGE  LINCOLN  PLIMPTON. 

Springfield  High  School,  Springfield,  Mass., 
Principal  WILLIAM  ORR. 

Wesleyan  Academy,  Wilbraham,  Mass., 
Principal  WILLIAM  RICE  NEWHALL. 


14* 


214  APPENDIX 


Orfjcr  ^pcnaiin  -j  nbitcD 

* 

His  Excellency  ABERAM  CHAMBERLAIN, 
Governor  of  the  State  of  Connecticut. 

His  Excellency  JOHN  LEWIS  BATES, 

Governor  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts. 

Honorable  LESLIE  MORTIER  SHAW, 

Secretary  of  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States. 

Honorable  OWEN  VINCENT  COFFIN, 

Ex-Governor  of  the  State  of  Connecticut. 

Honorable  NEHEMIAH  DAY  SPERRY, 

United  States  Representative  from  the  Second  District  of  Con- 
necticut. 

Honorable  CHARLES  GREEN  RICH  VINAL, 
Secretary  of  the  State  of  Connecticut. 

Right  Reverend  CHAUNCEY  BUNCE  BREWSTER, 
Bishop  of  the  Diocese  of  Connecticut. 

Reverend  EUGENE  RUSSELL  HENDRIX, 

Bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 

RICHARD  WATSON  GILDER, 

Editor  of  "  The  Century  Magazine." 

Reverend  GEORGE  JACKSON, 

Superintendent  of  the  Wesleyan  Mission,  Edinburgh,  Scotland. 

Reverend  WTT.T.ARD  MARTIN  RICE, 

Recording  Secretary  of  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Publication. 

Reverend  WILLIAM  ERASER  MCDOWELL, 

Corresponding  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  the  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  Church. 

Reverend  GEORGE  PRESTON  MAINS, 

Publishing  Agent,  Methodist  Book  Concern. 


APPENDIX  215 

Reverend  THOMAS  BENJAMIN  NEELET, 

Corresponding  Secretary  of  the  Sunday  School  Union  and 
of  the  Tract  Society  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

Professor  FRANCIS  HENRY  SMITH, 
University  of  Virginia. 

Professor  FRANK  SARGENT  HOFFMAN, 
Union  University. 

CHARLES  SCOTT,  JR., 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Mrs.  ELIZA  M.  BEACH, 
Middletown,  Ct. 

Mrs.  KATHARINE  E.  HILL, 
Newport,  E.  I. 

Mrs.  ELIZABETH  B.  PRENTICE, 
New  York,  N.  Y. 

Mrs.  MARY  M.  VAN  BENSCHOTEN, 
Bloomfleld,  N.  J. 


RESIDENTS  OF  MIDDLETOWN 

His  Honor  LYMAN  DELOSS  MILLS,  Mayor. 

Eeverend  EDWARD  CAMPION  ACHESON. 

Eeverend  CARL  BLECHER. 

Eeverend  FRANCIS  THEODORE  BROWN. 

SAMUEL  HUBBARD  CLARKE. 

ALBERT  EANDOLPH  CRITTENDEN. 

Eeverend  EICHMOND  FISK. 

Eeverend  GEORGE  BLODGETT  GILBERT. 

Eeverend  FREDERICK  WILLIAM  GREENE. 

ELIJAH  KENT  HUBBARD. 

Eeverend  ALBERT  AUGUSTUS  LATHBURY. 

Eeverend  WILLIAM  FRANKLIN  EOWLEY. 

Eeverend  JOHN  TOWNSEND. 

WILLIAM  WALTER  WILCOX. 


216  APPENDIX 

CONFERENCE    VISITORS 

Reverend  JACOB  AUGUSTUS  COLE 
Newark  Conference. 

Reverend  SAUL  OBER  CURTICE, 
New  York  East  Conference. 

Reverend  ERNEST  PIERCE  HERRICK, 
New  England  Conference. 

GEORGE  BUSH  MACCOMBER, 

Northern  New  York  Conference. 

Reverend  JAMES  AQUILA  MACMILLAN, 
New  York  East  Conference. 

Reverend  JOSEPH  WILLIAM  NARAMORE, 
New  York  Conference. 

Reverend  DEWITT  BURTON  THOMPSON, 
New  York  Conference. 


Reverend  ISAAC  LEMUEL  WOOD, 

Financial  Secretary  of  Wesleyan  University. 


APPENDIX 


217 


2l!umni 


[This  list  includes  non-graduates,  their  names  being 
printed  with  a  J  ] 


1833 

DANIEL  H.  CHASE. 

1837 

WlLLARD  M.  ElCE. 

1839 

HIRAM  WILLEY. 

1840 

JOHN  W.  LINDSAY. 

1841 

GEORGE  G.  REYNOLDS. 
RICHARD  S.  RUST. 

1846 

AMMI  B.  HYDE. 

1847 

EDWARD  G.  ANDREWS. 
JOSEPH  E.  KING. 
SILAS  W.  ROBBINS. 

1850 

^FRANCIS  H.  SMITH. 
JOHN  M.  VAN  VLECK. 

1852 

THOMPSON  H.  LANDON. 

1854 

CALVIN  B.  FORD. 
CYRUS  D.  Foss. 
WILLIAM  T.  HILL. 

1855 

JOB  GARDNER. 
CHARLES  C.  SKILTON. 


1856 

ARTHUR  W.  BACON. 
SAMUEL  F.  UPHAM. 

1857 

WILLIAM  T.  ELMER. 
ALGERNON  K.  JOHNSTON. 
W.  HENRY  SUTTON. 
ALVERD  E.  WINCHELL. 

1858 

AMHERST  W.  KELLOGG. 
DANIEL  C.  KNOWLES. 
^CHARLES  H.  STOCKING. 

1859 

C.  COLLARD  ADAMS. 
DAVID  ALLISON. 
FREDERIC  S.  BARNUM. 
JHENRY  B.  BROWN. 
STEPHEN  B.  DAVIS. 
SILAS  E.  QUIMBY. 
WATSON  C.  SQUIRE. 

I860 

t  JAMES  M.  BUCKLEY. 
HERBERT  F.  FISK. 
JOHN  B.  LAPHAM. 
SAMUEL  M.  STILES. 
WEBSTER  R.  WALKLEY. 

1861 

WILLIAM  D.  BRIDGE. 
ROSWELL  S.  DOUGLASS. 
FRANCIS  D.  EDGERTON. 
CHARLES  G.  R.  VINAL. 
NATHAN  W.  WILDER. 


218 


APPENDIX 


1862 

JAMES  M.  KING. 

1863 

GEORGE  R.  ADAMS. 
W.  DEMPSTER  CHASE. 
GEORGE  W.  COOK. 
GEORGE  L.  EDWARDS. 
RICHARD  H.  GIDMAN. 
CHARLES  D.  HILLS. 
WILLIAM  P.  HUBBARD. 
AUGUSTUS  W.  KINGSLEY. 
GEORGE  A.  NEWCOMB. 
JOHN  C.  RAND. 
MOSES  L.  SCUDDER. 
ISAAC  E.  SMITH. 
WINFIELD  S.  SMYTH. 
FREEMAN  P.  TOWER. 
ALFRED  A.  WRIGHT. 

1864 

JEDEDIAH  D.  BEEMAN. 
GEORGE  S.  BENNETT. 
CHARLES  H.  BUCK. 
CHARLES  W.  CHURCH. 
GEORGE  FORSYTE. 
JESSE  L.  HURLBUT. 
HENRY  C.  M.  INGRAHAM. 
GEORGE  N.  PHELPS. 
JOHN  J.  REED. 
GEORGE  L.  THOMPSON. 
ALBERT  H.  WYATT. 

1865 

WILBUR  0.  AT  WATER. 
EDWARD  CUTTS. 
GEORGE  A.  GRAVES. 
WILLIAM  V.  KELLEY. 
JOSEPH  H.  MANSFIELD. 
ISRAEL  A.  NEWHALL. 
WILLIAM  NORTH  RICE. 
ELIAS  B.  SANFORD. 

1866 

STEPHEN  H.  OLIN. 
GEORGE  C.  ROUND. 


1867 

EDWARD  CUNNINGHAM. 
EUGENE  R.  HENDRIX. 
^ROBERT  LAUDER. 
CHARLES  W.  MILLARD. 

1868 

GEORGE  B.  DUSINBERRE. 
MARTIN  A.  KNAPP. 
D.  WARD  NORTHROP. 
FRANK  REYNOLDS. 

1869 

HENRY  S.  CARHART. 
CHARLES  P.  CROFT. 
DAVID  E.  MILLER. 
ALFRED  NOON. 
GEORGE  E.  REED. 
CALEB  T.  WINCHESTER. 

1870 

DARIUS  BAKER. 
BENJAMIN  GILL. 
WILLIAM  A.  JOHNSTON. 
GEORGE  P.  MAINS. 
WILLIAM  H.  PETERS. 
WILLIAM  J.  SMITH. 

1871 

ELDON  B.  BIRDSEY. 
BYRON  A.  BROOKS. 
ROBERT  W.  JONES. 
ALBERT  P.  PALMER. 
NORMAN  J.  SQUIRES. 
WILLIAM  F.  WHITCHER. 

1872 

EDWIN  A.  BLAKE. 
ALMON  E.  HALL. 

tLEVERETT  M.  HUBBARD. 

SILAS  W.  KENT. 
F.  MASON  NORTH. 
WATSON  L.  PHILLIPS. 
CHARLES  F.  RICE. 
ARTHUR  B.  SANFORD. 


APPENDIX 


219 


1873 

JOSEPH  A.  ADLINGTON. 
HERBERT  H.  COSTON. 
BENJAMIN  E.  GERST. 
DELMAR  R.  LOWELL. 
HINCKLEY  G.  MITCHELL. 
WILBUR  M.  PALMER. 
JOEL  O.  SHERBURN. 
MARCUS  L.  TAFT. 

1874 

FORREST  E.  BARKER. 
^ROBERT  A.  CARRTNGTON. 
MORRIS  B.  CRAWFORD. 
GEORGE  H.  HARDY. 
CHARLES  F.  MERRILL. 
FRANCIS  H.  PARKER. 
WESLEY  U.  PEARNE. 
CHARLES  W.  SMILEY. 
ALBERT  M.  TALLMADGE. 

1875 

LEONARD  L.  BEEMAN. 
EDWARD  0.  THAYER. 
CLARENCE  A.  WALDO. 

1876 

JDANIEL  J.  CLARK. 

GEORGE  S.  COLEMAN. 

CHARLES  E.  DAVIS. 
^TIMOTHY  P.  FROST. 

HENRY  D.  SIMONDS. 

PHEBE  A.  (STONE)  BEEMAN. 

1877 

J.  FRANCIS  CALEF. 
WILLIAM  I.  HAVEN. 

1878 

CLARENCE  E.  BACON. 
WILLIAM  E.  DUNCAN. 
ALPHA  G.  KYNETT. 
WILLIAM  D.  LEONARD. 
BURDETT  A.  RICH. 
DANIEL  L.  ROBERTSON. 
WILLIAM  E.  SCOFIELD. 
GEORGE  E.  STOCKWELL. 
EDWARD  A.  SUMNER. 


WILLIAM  N.  TAFT. 
BYRON  V.  TOMPKINS. 
JOSEPH  H.  TOMPSON. 

1879 

LAHMAN  F.  BOWER. 
SELDON  L.  BROWN. 
ALFRED  C.  BRUNER. 
FRANK  S.  COOKMAN. 
HENRY  GILDERSLEEVE. 
ALBERT  MANN. 
DANIEL  A.  MARKHAM. 
JHowARD  M.  NEWHALL. 
WILLIAM  C.  STRONG. 
EDWIN  A.  WHITE. 
CAROLINE  L.  (RICE)  CRAWFORD. 

1880 

CHARLES  S.  CHAPIN. 
CHARLES  S.  DAVIS. 
MARTIN  W.  GRIFFIN. 
ABRAM  W.  HARRIS. 
JERNEST  P.  HERRICK. 
ALSOP  LEFFINGWELL. 
FREDERICK  W.  ROBBINS. 
ASA  H.  WILCOX. 

1881 

THOMAS  H.  ECKFELDT. 
CHARLES  L.  FOSTER. 
WILLIAM  A.  JONES. 
BENJAMIN  F.  KIDDER. 
FRANK  B.  LYNCH. 
CHARLES  W.  McCoRMicK. 
WILLIAM  W.  MCGILTON. 
WILLIAM  R.  NEWHALL. 
^ROBERT  F.  RAYMOND. 
WILLIS  K.  STETSON. 
CLARA  VAN  VLECK. 

1882 

JOSEPH  F.  DEC  ASTRO. 
BRACE  M.  GALLIEN. 
JOSEPH  GERARD. 
FRANK  K.  HALLOCK. 
KARL  P.  HARRINGTON. 
CHARLES  REYNOLDS. 
JCLARA  A.  PEASE. 


220 


APPENDIX 


1883 

^CHARLES  E.  COFFIN. 

J.  FRANCIS  COOPER. 

ELMER  G.  DERBY. 

JAMES  A.  DEVELIN. 

WILLIAM  J.  JAMES. 
JHENRY  P.  KING. 

RAYMOND  C.  PENFIELD. 
UOSEPH  A.  RICHARDS. 

GEORGE  A.  ROBBINS. 

ALBERT  L.  SMITH. 

1884 

JOSEPH  B.  ACKLEY. 
DAVID  G.  DOWNEY. 
CHARLES  A.  LITTLEFIELD. 
WILLIAM  A.  RICHARD. 
FRANKLIN  H.  TAYLOR. 
EDWARD  B.  VAN  VLECK. 
ELLA  V.  BURR. 
CARRIE  M.  HILLS. 
JEMELDA  M.  RICHARD. 

1885 

EDWARD  D.  BASSETT. 

FRANK  D.  BEATTYS. 

GEORGE  D.  BEATTYS. 

SAUL  O.  CURTICE. 

OSCAR  KUHNS. 

ROBERT  F.  NORTON. 

JAVAN  M.  RUSSELL. 

DEWITT  B.  THOMPSON. 

FRANK  B.  UPHAM. 

IDA  R.  GRIDLEY. 

BELLA  B.  (PULLMAN)  PORTER. 

1886 

GEORGE  C.  BOSWELL. 
WALTER  P.  BUCK. 
ARTHUR  W.  BYRT. 
JOHN  C.  CLARK. 
EDWARD  B.  ROSA. 
CHARLES  SCOTT,  JR. 
EDWARD  C.  STROUT. 
BERTHA  BASS. 


1887 

JACOB  A.  COLE. 
EDWARD  E.  CORNWALL. 
RALPH  H.  POMEROY. 
HERBERT  WELCH. 
WESLEY  E.  WOODRUFF. 
JESSIE  I.  (INGLIS)  EASON. 
JENNIE  VAN  VLECK. 

1888 

HARRY  H.  BEATTYS. 
EDWARD  W.  BURKE. 
WILLIAM  M.  CASSIDY. 
ROLAND  W.  Guss. 
FREDERIC  H.  L.  HAMMOND. 
ARTHUR  W.  JAMES. 
FREDERICK  W.  LANGE. 
HARRY  K.  MUNROE. 
THEOPHILUS  E.  NILES. 
W.  BARNARD  SMITH. 
AARON  L.  TREADWELL. 
t  JORDAN  C.  WELLS. 
THOMAS  D.  WELLS. 
ALICE  MAY  HOTCHKISS. 
KATHARINE  B.  (MITCHELL) 
JENKINS. 

1889 

DUDLEY  C.  ABBOTT. 
ARTHUR  N.  BURKE. 
WILLIAM  L.  CLARKE. 
SEWARD  V.  COFFIN. 
FREDERICK  M.  DAVENPORT. 
GEORGE  M.  GLENN. 
JOHN  E.  LOVELAND. 

189O 

FRANCIS  A.  BAGNALL. 
CHARLES  E.  BARTO. 
ROBERT  J.  BEACH. 
EDWIN  P.  CURRIER. 
EDGAR  S.  FERNALD. 
JOHN  M.  HARRIS. 
LEONARD  C.  MURDOCK. 
LYON  L.  NORTON. 
GEORGE  L.  PECK. 
ANNA  H.  ANDREWS. 


APPENDIX 


221 


MARTHA  J.  (BEACH)  WESTGATE. 
MARY  E.  BEACH. 

LlLLIE  B.  (CONN)  KUHNS. 

HESTER  L.  (RAYMOND)  VAN 

VLECK. 

1891 

LUCIEN  S.  BAYLISS. 
WATERS  B.  DAY. 
RALPH  B.  HIBBARD. 
JOHN  E.  JENKINS. 
LINNAEUS  E.  LAF^TRA. 
ERNEST  L.  MERITT. 
EUGENE  A.  NOBLE. 
GEORGE  L.  PLIMPTON. 
GEORGE  H.  ROGERS. 
ELLEN  M.  B.  PECK. 

1892 

JCHARLES  D.  BURNES. 

DAVID  J.  CARLOUGH. 
ALBERT  L.  CROWELL. 
GEORGE  W.  DAVISON. 
GEORGE  M.  EGGLESTON. 
GEORGE  S.  GODARD. 
HOWARD  D.  GORDON. 
RALPH  M.  GRANT. 
NELSON  C.  HUBBARD. 
WILLIAM  H.  KIDD. 
WILLIAM  F.  LITTLE. 
ARTHUR  B.  MILLER. 
CHARLES  A.  MILLER. 

JMILBOURNE  MUNROE. 

JOSEPH  W.  NARAMORE. 
CLIFFORD  I.  PARSHLEY. 
t  JAMES  S.  PARSHLEY. 
JOHN  S.  PULLMAN. 
ALFRED  E.  TAYLOR. 
SAMUEL  J.  WATSON. 

1893 

GEORGE  N.  EDWARDS. 
WILLIAM  E.  FAIRBANK. 
CLIFFORD  C.  GILBERT. 
CHARLES  G.  GOODRICH. 
LORENZO  W.  HADLEY. 
HERVEY  HOWARD. 


DAVID  HUGHES. 
FREEMAN  T.  HULSE. 
WESLEY  E.  LAKE. 
MARTIN  0.  LEPLEY. 
G.  ROWLAND  MUNROE. 
ARTHUR  I.  POWERS. 
WALTER  E.  RUSSELL. 
HARRY  A.  THOMPSON. 
MATTIE  L.  HILLS. 
MARY  P.  O'FLAHERTY. 

1894 

BENJAMIN  R.  BRTGGS. 
WILLIAM  M.  ESTEN. 
WILLIAM  W.  FISHER. 
ROBERT  M.  FRENCH. 
FREDRIC  W.  FROST. 
LEWIS  E.  GORDON. 
WILLIAM  F.  GROVES. 
RUPERT  H.  HOPKINS. 
FREDERIC  L.  KNOWLES. 
RALPH  F.  LOWE. 
GEORGE  C.  MCDONALD. 
IRVING  A.  MEEKER. 
WILLIAM  M.  NEWTON. 
FREDERICK  H.  SAWYER. 
WILLIAM  L.  SNOW. 
EDWARD  L.  STEELE. 
JOHN  A.  THOMPSON. 
EDWIN  C.  TREAT. 
RALPH  H.  WHITE. 
FLORENCE  A.  GRAVES. 
SUSAN  J.  (MANTLE)  SHELDON. 
LIZZIE  C.  (RICE)  BARNES. 

1895 

SAMUEL  LE  R.  ACKERLY. 
JAMES  L.  BAHRET. 
EDWARD  F.  COFFIN. 
FRANK  W.  DOANE. 
NORMAN  E.  GILBERT. 
WILLIAM  H.  HAYES. 
FREDERICK  KNIFFEN. 
FRANKLIN  T.  KURT. 
GEORGE  N.  LAPHAM. 
WARREN  R.  NEFF. 


222 


APPENDIX 


SAMUEL  B.  OPDYKE. 
GEORGE  H.  RYDER. 
ERNEST  K.  SMITH. 
HOWARD  A.  BUTTON. 
JOSEPH  K.  VAN  DENBURG. 
JOHN  G.  WALSH. 
LULA  G.  ADAMS. 
CAROLINE  C.  CLARK. 
MARY  E.  CRAMER. 
SARAH  B.  (TUCKER)  KURT. 

1896 

JOHN  A.  ANDERSON. 
WILLIAM  H.  BURGWIN. 
J.  FRANKLIN  CHASE. 
MELROSE  D.  DAVIES. 
OLIN  W.  HILL. 
IRVING  E.  MANCHESTER. 
THOMAS  B.  MILLER. 
GEORGE  W.  NORTON. 
^FREDERICK  L.  PARKER. 
JAMES  PULLMAN. 
HENRY  D.  TRINKAUS. 
JOHN  H.  WARD. 
ISABELLA  J.  CHURCH. 

MAY  S.  (FlNNEY)  WlLFORD. 

CHRISTINE  K.  (GLOVER)  FROST. 
LILLIAN  G.  (!NGLIS)  LARRABEE. 
ELIZABETH  H.  ROGERS. 
LUCY  0.  SEARLE. 
MARGARET  N.  (WILLIAMS)  BEL- 
DEN. 

1897 

HARRY  A.  BATCHELDER. 
MANNING  B.  BENNETT. 
R.  NELSON  BENNETT. 
CHARLES  H.  BROWN. 
N.  EVAN  DAVIS. 
WILLIAM  G.  GIFPIN. 
WHITNEY  M.  HUBBARD. 
FRANCIS  R.  NORTH. 
CHARLES  L.  ROCKWELL. 
JOHN  L.  SPARKLIN. 
EVAN  L.  TAMBLYN. 
ROBERT  P.  WILSON. 
PAUL  L.  WOOLSTON. 


EDITH  J.  (ANDRUS)  DAVENPORT. 
CARRIE  T.  BROWN. 
JANE  COUGHLIN. 
MINNIE  R.  SNOW. 
ELIZABETH  C.  STEVENS. 
CORNELIA  H.  STONE. 
MARY  G.  THOMPSON. 
MARY  L.  WESTGATE. 
CARRIE  M.  YALE. 

1898 

BENJAMIN  F.  ANDREWS. 
GEORGE  E.  ANDREWS. 
ALLING  P.  BEARDSLEY. 
FRED  I.  BROWN. 
J.  HOWARD  FAIRCHILD. 
EDMUND  W.  FRAIN. 
ARTHUR  0.  GRIGGS. 
HAROLD  HASTINGS. 
PHILIP  B.  HAWK. 
JOHN  R.  HENRY. 
FREDERICK  A.  JOHNSTON. 
GEORGE  B.  MACCOMBER. 
ROBERT  D.  MILNER. 
EDWARD  L.  MONTGOMERY. 
ADOLPHUS  S.  NORTH. 
GEORGE  L.  NOYES. 
PATRICK  F.  O'NEILL. 
ROBERT  E.  PLATT. 
^ERNEST  0.  POWERS. 
GEORGE  D.  ROBINS. 
BENJAMIN  E.  SIBLEY. 
RALPH  D.  WHITING. 
ARCHER  E.  YOUNG. 
MARGARET  W.  (GAINES)  NOYES. 
BERNICE  (HALL)  LEGG. 
ELEANOR  NEWELL. 
MARY  (NORTHROP)  BURDICK. 
HANNAH  P.  O'FLAHERTY. 
SUSIE  H.  POTTER. 
ZULA  E.  ROGERS. 
ADDIE  F.  SWEET. 
ISABEL  M.  WALBRIDGE. 

1899 

ADDIS  B.  ALBRO. 
MARCELLUS  C.  AVERY. 


APPENDIX 


223 


NOERIS  C.  BAILEY. 
EDWARD  S.  BELDEN. 
BURDETTE  R.  BUCKINGHAM. 
MONROE  BUCKLEY. 
ARTHUR  H.  BURDICK. 
HORACE  W.  COONS. 
WILLIAM  C.  DARBY. 
BERTRAM  F.  DODD. 
FREDERICK  L.  FLINCHBAUGH. 
ARTHUR  F.  GOODRICH. 
EGBERT  E.  EARNED. 
WILLIAM  H.  LESLIE. 
WARD  W.  PICKARD. 
WARREN  F.  SHELDON. 
CLARENCE  R.  SMITH. 
HARRY  R.  STONE. 
J.  EDGAR  TACKABERRY. 
NEWTON  G-.  WRIGHT. 
OLIVER  E.  YALE. 
ADELLA  W.  BATES. 
JULIA  BRAZOS. 
CHARLOTTE  B.  FROST. 
ALICE  L.  (PATBRSON)  BRAGDON. 
HELEN  E.  WESTGATE. 
MARY  E.  WILCOXSON. 
M.  EMMA  WILLIAMS. 

1900 

HARRY  T.  BAKER. 
JOHN  R.  BOWMAN. 
ROLLIN  H.  BURR. 
HORACE  D.  BYRNES. 
FRANK  R.  CLARK. 
ASHTON  W.  DAVIS. 
H.  LORANUS  DAVIS. 
WALTER  F.  DEARBORN. 
GAYLORD  W.  DOUGLASS. 
ELLIOTT  M.  ELDREDGE. 
PHILIP  E.  GARRISON. 
WILLIAM  B.  HINKLEY. 

LtEROY  A.  HOWLAND. 

HENRY  A.  INGRAHAM. 
CHARLES  E.  JOHNSTON. 
ROBERT  W.  LANGFORD. 
EDWARD  McMiLLEN. 
ROBERT  E.  NIVISON. 


GEORGE  D.  PETRIB. 
HERBERT  H.  POWERS. 
FRANK  H.  RYDER. 
RALPH  W.  RYMER. 
CLARENCE  H.  STAPLES. 
ISAAC  C.  SUTTON. 

WlNTHROP  TlRRELL. 

THOMAS  TRAVIS. 
PAYSON  J.  TREAT. 
EMORY  H.  WESTLAKE. 
WALTER  B.  WILSON. 
ANNIE  G.  (BIRDSEY)  STEELE. 
DORA  I.  (BLACKMAN)  MCMILLEN. 
JIiAURA  A.  M.  BOHLMANN. 
ALICE  BRIGHAM. 
ELIZABETH  A.  COUGHLIN. 
GRACE  L.  FOOTE. 
GRACE  M.  HULSE. 
MARY  A.  SALESKI. 
PERCIE  J.  SMITH. 
JANE  F.  D.  WALSH. 

1901 

WALTER  M.  ANDERSON. 
WALTER  S.  BAKER. 
GEORGE  E.  BISHOP. 
WALLACE  S.  BOARDMAN. 
HERMANN  A.  BUSCHEK. 
BURTON  H.  CAMP. 
THOMAS  S.  CLINE. 
JOHN  A.  DECKER,  JR. 
HARRTMAN  C.  DODD. 
SOLON  A.  DODDS. 
ALBERT  S.  GORDON. 
ROY  H.  JONES. 
JHARRY  C.  LANE. 
ARTHUR  J.  MEREDITH. 
ROBERT  J.  MERRIAM. 
W.  PERCIVAL  OGDEN. 
DUDLEY  B.  PALMER. 
RICHARD  G.  POVEY. 
WALTER  J.  RANDOLPH. 
WILLIAM  C.  RICE. 
JOHN  B.  RIPPERE. 
CHARLES  H.  SEWARD. 
CARL  C.  STICKNEY. 


224 


APPENDIX 


FRANK  B.  WADE. 
SUSAN  M.  ADAMS. 
MABELLE  W.  BARNES. 
ANNIE  S.  BROWN. 
CHRISTABEL  M.  COE. 
LEILA  A.  FIELD. 
MARIE  R.  HUBERT. 
LENA  Z.  NEWTON. 
MAY  T.  PALMER. 
EDITH  L.  RISLEY. 
J.  MYRA  WILCOX. 

1902 

ROBERT  A.  ANDERSON. 

ALFRED  M.  BAILEY. 
JR.  Louis  BANISTER. 

JOHN  M.  BETTS. 

ISAAC  S.  CARROLL. 

W.  HARRY  CLEMONS. 

JAMES  J.  COGAN. 

SAMUEL  F.  CROWELL. 

RALPH  S.  CUSHMAN. 

JAMES  M.  DEARBORN. 

L.  EDWIN  DELANEY. 
JLouis  DENNISTON. 

FRANKLIN  S.  DURSTON 

PHILIP  P.  FROST. 

AXEL  HANSON. 

WILLIAM  G.  HARRIS. 

ALEXANDER  J.  INGLIS. 

EDWARD  A.  INGRAHAM. 

GEORGE  B.  LUFKIN. 


FREDERIC  M.  McGAW. 
FRED  M.  MEADER. 
CARL  S.  NEUMANN. 
ROBERT  B.  NEWELL. 
WILBER  E.  NEWTON. 
CLARENCE  A.  PIERCE. 
HARRIE  A.  PRATT. 
CARL  F.  PRICE. 
GEORGE  D.  RYDER. 
IRVING  F.  SCOPTELD. 
NORMAN  K.  SILLIMAN. 
ARTHUR  N.  TASKER. 
HUBERT  N.  TERRELL. 
EVERETT  L.  THORNDIKE. 
CHARLES  E.  WALDRON. 
HENRY  G.  WELLS. 
ALICE  L.ADAMS. 
ELDORA  J.  BIRCH. 
MAUD  V.  COLE. 
DORA  W.  DAVIS. 
SUSIE  A.  DE  ANGELIS. 
ALICE  W.  ENGLISH. 
MABELLE  C.  GRANT. 
KATHARINE  L.  GRISWOLD. 
MARGARET  GRISWOLD. 
SARAH  C.  HALLOCK. 
ILGA  F.  R.  HARVEY. 
AUGUSTA  T.  JONES. 
FANNIE  MYERSON. 
ELIZABETH  P.  PECK. 
ERNESTINE  ROSE. 
JESSIE  M.  WINANS. 


Alumni,  not  Bachelors  of  Wesley  an  University. 

WILLIAM  FRANKLIN  ANDERSON  (D.D.,  1902). 
HENRY  ANSON  BUTTZ  (M.A.,  1866). 
OWEN  VINCENT  COFFIN  (LL.D.,  1895). 
RALPH  GUERNSEY  HIBBARD  (M.A.,  1866). 
JOEL  MARVIN  LEONARD  (D.D.,  1902). 
WILLIAM  HARMON  NILES  (M.A.,  1870). 
ARTHUR  WHITMORE  SMITH  (M.S.,  1895). 
ALICE  BAKER  GUY  (M.S.,  1902). 
MYRA  COFFIN  HOLBROOK  (M.A.,  1899). 
MIRANDA  BELLE  SPERRY  (M.S.,  1902). 


TRUSTEES  AND   FACULTY  OF 
WESLEYAN   UNIVERSITY 

JUKE,  1903 


15 


2£»oar0  of  trustees 


[Those  marked  with  a  t  were  present  during  the  Bicentennial  Celebration.] 

I  Hon.  GEORGE  GREENWOOD  REYNOLDS,  LL.D.,  Pres., 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

Rev.  EDMUND  MEAD  MILLS,  PH.D.,  D.D.,  Secretary, 
Elmira,  N.  Y. 

t  Rev.  CHARLES  HENRY  BUCK,  D.D.,  Treasurer, 
Yonkers,  N.  Y. 

t  Rev.  BRADFORD  PAUL  RAYMOND,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
(Member  ex-officio),  Middletown. 

TERM  EXPIRES  IN  1903 

WILLIAM  CONNELL, 

Scranton,  Pa. 

Rev.  DAVID  HOUGH  ELA,  D.D., 
Hudson,  Mass. 

t  GEORGE  SLOCUM  BENNETT,  M.A., 
Wilkes-Barre,  Pa. 

t  CHARLES  LEE  ROCKWELL, 
Meriden. 

t  Rev.  AZEL  WASHBURN  HAZEN,  D.D., 
Middletown. 

t  WILLIAM  EDWIN  SESSIONS, 
Bristol. 

§  WILLIAM  MURPHY  INGRAHAM,  M.A., 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

t  $  Hon.  MARTIN  AUGUSTINE  KNAPP,  LL.D., 
Washington,  D.  C. 

227 


228  APPENDIX 

t  f  Rev.  JOEL  OSMON  SHERBUBN,  M.A., 
St.  Johnsbury,  Vt. 

t  Rev.  OLIN  BURR  Coir,  D.D., 
Potsdam,  N.  Y. 

TERM   EXPIRES   IN  1904 

t  Rev.  CHARLES  HENRY  BUCK,  D.D., 
Yonkers,  N.  Y. 

t  SAMUEL  TALCOTT  CAMP, 
Middletown. 

Hon.  PHINEAS  CHAPMAN  LOUNSBURY,  LL.D., 
New  York,  N.  Y. 

I  GEORGE  SILAS  COLEMAN,  M.A., 
New  York,  N.  Y. 

%  §  WEBSTER  ROGERS  WALKLEY,  M.A., 
New  York,  N.  Y. 

I  $  Hon.  WESLEY  ULYSSES  PEARNE,  B.A., 

Middletown. 

%  t  Rev.  DANIEL  CLARK  KNOWLES,  D.D., 
Tilton,  N.  H. 

t  f  Rev.  FRANK  MASON  NORTH,  D.D., 
New  York,  N.  Y. 

t  Rev.  ISAAC  HARRISON  WHITTIER  WHARFP,  M.A., 
Bangor,  Me. 

I 1  Rev.  EDWARD  OLIN  THAYER,  D.D., 

Springfield,  Vt. 


TERM  EXPIRES  IN  1905 

J  Rev.  SAMUEL  FOSTER  UPHAM,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
Madison,  N.  J. 

t  Rev.  BP.  CYRUS  DAVID  Foss,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 

CHARLES  SCOTT, 

Philadelphia,  Pa. 


APPENDIX  229 

t  Rev.  BP.  EDWARD  GAYER  ANDREWS,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
New  York,  N.  Y. 

t  Rev.  JOSEPH  ELIJAH  KING,  PH.D.,  D.D., 
Fort  Edward,  N.  Y. 

t  Rev.  WILLIAM  VALENTINE  KELLEY,  D.D., 
New  York,  N.  Y. 

ANDREW  CRAIG  FIELDS, 

New  York,  N.  Y. 

t  §  STEPHEN  HENRY  OLIN,  LL.D. 
New  York,  N.  Y. 

$  Hon.  WATSON  CARVOSSO  SQUIRE,  B.A. 
Seattle,  Wash. 

t  Rev.  DANIEL  AVERY  WHEDON,  D.D., 
East  Greenwich,  R.  I. 

t  Rev.  JOHN  HAMLINE  COLEMAN, 
Salem,  Ore. 


TERM  EXPIRES  IN  1906 

JOSEPH  SUYDAM  STOUT, 

New  York,  N.  Y. 

t  Hon.  DAVID  WARD  NORTHROP,  M.A., 
Middletown. 

t  CEPHAS  BRAINERD  ROGERS, 
Meriden. 

JOHN  EMORY  ANDRUS,  B.A., 
Yonkers,  N.  Y. 

t  HENRY  HOBART  BENEDICT, 
New  Haven. 

CHARLES  GIBSON, 

Albany,  N.  Y. 

t  $  Hon.  GEORGE  GREENWOOD  REYNOLDS,  LL.D., 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

t  §  Rev.  HERBERT  WELCH,  D.D., 

Mt.  Vernon,  N.  Y. 
15* 


230  APPENDIX 

J  t  Rev.  JAMES  MARCUS  KING,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 

f  Rev.  EDMUND  MEAD  MILLS,  PH.D.,  D.D., 
Elmira,  N.  Y. 


TERM  EXPIRES  IN  1907 

t  Rev.  JAMES  MONROE  BUCKLEY,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
New  York,  N.  Y. 

JAMES  HENRY  ALEXANDER, 
Elizabeth,  N.  J. 

FRANK  SMITH  JONES, 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

t  HENRY  CRUISE  MURPHY  INQRAHAM,  M.A., 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

JAMES  NOEL  BROWN, 

New  York,  N.  Y. 

t  §  Hon.  DARIUS  BAKER,  M.A., 

Newport,  R.  I. 

t  §  Rev.  DAVID  GEORGE  DOWNEY,  D.D., 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

t  f  Rev.  JOHN  WESLEY  LINDSAY,  D.D., 
West  Newton,  Mass. 

t  f  WILLIAM  PERRY  BILLINGS, 
Kingston,  Pa. 

Rev.  JOHN  YOUNG  DOBBINS,  D.D., 
Montclair,  N.  J. 


(Olcct 
TERM  BEGINS  IN  1903 

WILLIAM  CONNELL, 

Scranton,  Pa. 

GEORGE  SLOCUM  BENNETT,  M.A., 
Wilkes-Barre,  Pa. 


APPENDIX  231 

I  CHARLES  LEE  ROCKWELL, 
Meriden. 

t  Rev.  AZEL  WASHBURN  HAZEN,  D.D., 
Middletown. 

t  WILLIAM  EDWIN  SESSIONS, 
Bristol. 

t  §  Hon.  MARTIN  AUGUSTINE  KNAPP,  LL.D., 
Washington,  D.  C. 

t  §  ABRAM  WINEGARDNER  HARRIS,  Sc.D.,  LL.D., 
Port  Deposit,  Md. 

\  t  Rev.  JOEL  OSMON  SHERBURN,  M.A., 
St.  Johnsbury,  Vt. 

\  t  Rev.  ALBERT  PEARNE  PALMER, 
Lowville,  N.  Y. 


NOTE.— Trustees  whose  names  are  marked  with  a  §  were  elected 
by  the  Alumni ;  those  whose  names  are  marked  with  a  t  were  elected 
by  the  patronizing  conferences;  all  others  were  elected  by  the 
Board  of  Trustees. 


APPENDIX 


faciritp. 


REV.  BRADFORD  PAUL  RAYMOND,  D.D.,  LL.D., 

PRESIDENT, 
And  A.  V.  Stout  Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy. 

JOHN  MONROE  VAN  VLECK,  LL.D., 

VICE-PRESIDENT, 
And  Fisk  Professor  of  Mathematics  and  Astronomy. 

*  *  * 

.lane  A.  Seney  Professor  of  the  Greek  Language  and  Literature. 

*  *  * 

Marcus  L.  Taft  Professor  of  the  German  Language  and  Literature. 

RALPH  GUERNSEY  HIBBARD,  M.A., 

Instructor  in  Elocution. 

REV.  WILLIAM  NORTH  RICE,  PH.D.,  LL.D.. 

G.  I.  Seney  Professor  of  Geology. 

WILBUR  OLIN  ATWATER,  PH.D., 

Beach  Professor  of  Chemistry. 

CALEB  THOMAS  WINCHESTER,  L.H.D., 
Olin  Professor  of  English  Literature. 

MORRIS  BARKER  CRAWFORD,  M.A., 

Foss  Professor  of  Physics. 

HERBERT  WILLIAM  CONN,  PH.D., 
Daniel  Ayres  Professor  of  Biology. 

ELMER  TRUESDELL  MERRILL,  M.A., 
Robert  Rich  Professor  of  the  Latin  Language  and  Literature. 


APPENDIX  233 

ANDREW  CAMPBELL  ARMSTRONG,  PH.D., 

William  Griffin  Professor  of  Philosophy. 

WILLIAM  EDWARD  MEAD,  PH.D., 

Waite  Professor  of  the  English  Language. 

WILLIAM  JOHN  JAMES,  M.A., 

Librarian. 

FRANK  WALTER  NICOLSON,  M.A., 

Secretary  of  the  Faculty,  and  Associate  Professor  of  Latin. 

JAMES  MORTON  PATON,  PH.D., 
Associate  Professor  of  Greek. 

WALTER  PARKE  BRADLEY,  PH.D., 

Professor  of  Chemistry. 

EDWARD  BURR  VAN  VLECK,  PH.D., 

Professor  of  Mathematics. 

OSCAR  KUHNS,  M.A., 
Hollis  Professor  of  Romance  Languages. 

f  EDWARD  BENNETT  ROSA,  PH.D., 

Charlotte  Augusta  Ayres  Professor  of  Physics. 

WILLARD  CLARK  FISHER,  B.A., 
Professor  of  Economics  and  Social  Science. 

GEORGE  DAVIS  CHASE,  PH.D., 
Associate  Professor  of  Latin. 

ALBERT  BERNHARDT  FAUST,  PH.D., 

Associate  Professor  of  German. 

*  *  * 

Bedding  Professor  of  History. 

FRANCIS   GANO  BENEDICT,  PH.D., 

Associate  Professor  of  Chemistry. 
On  leave  of  absence. 


234  APPENDIX 

RAYMOND  DODGE,  PH.D., 

Professor  of  Psychology. 

FREDERICK  WILLIAM  MARVEL,  PH. B. 
Director  of  the  Gymnasium. 

WALTER  GUYTON  CADY,  PH.D., 
Instructor  in  Physics. 

RALPH  CLEWELL  SUPER,  M. A., 

Tutor  in  Modern  Languages. 

GEORGE  MATTHEW  DUTCHER,  Ph.D. 
Associate  Professor  of  History. 

OTTO  DUNKEL,  PH.D., 
Instructor  in  Mathematics. 

HARRY  TORSEY  BAKER,  M.A., 

Assistant  in  English. 


SAMUEL  WARD  LOPER,  M.A., 
Curator  of  the  Museum. 

WILLIAM  MERRILL  ESTEN,  M.S., 

Assistant  in  Biology. 

DAYS  ELIZABETH  DIEFENDORF,  Pn.B. 

Assistant  Librarian. 

ALLAN  WINTER  ROWE,  B.S., 

Assistant  in  Chemistry. 

WILLIAM  HARRY  CLEMONS,  B.A., 
Assistant  in  the  Library. 

CLARENCE  ALBERT  PIERCE,  B.S., 
Assistant  in  Physics. 


ANNA  ALMIRA  FISHER,  M.A., 
Dean  of  Women. 


DEGREES  CONFERRED  BY 

WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY 

JULY  1,  1903 


SDegreeg, 

* 

The  following  degrees  were  conferred  in  course 

The  Degree  of  Bachelor  of  Science  on  : 

THOMAS  PEECIVAL  BEYER.  IRA  CHAPMAN  DOANE. 

LEVERETT  DALE  BRISTOL.  ALFRED  AUGUSTINE  GUSTAFSON. 

WILLIAM  PATTERSON  CALDER.  CLARENCE  FREDERIC  HALE. 

HOWARD  DICKINSON  CRANE.  MAX  FRANKLYN  HOWLAND. 

MILTON  WEBSTER  DAVENPORT.          GEORGE  HAMPTON  McGAW. 
Lucius  LOREN  PALMER. 

The  Degree  of  Bachelor  of  Philosophy  on : 

GEORGE  THURSTON  AMES.  WILLIAM  STILLWELL  JACKSON. 

JAMES  HERBERT  BAKER.  ROBERT  EATHBUN  LEWIS. 

EGBERT  ALLEN  BARTLETT.  CARL  STEPHEN  MUELLER. 

JAMES  GARFIELD  BERRIEN.  JESSE  LYNDON  PARKER. 

WILLIAM  PRESTON  BRAY.  MARTIN  PRUCHA. 

JAMES  NATHANIEL  CARTER.  WALLACE  LEVERITT  EOOT. 

ARTHUR  WILLIAM  CHAPMAN.  JOHN  CHRISTIE  WARE. 

GEORGE  WILBER  HARTWELL.  GEORGE  MARVIN  WARNER. 

ZELIA  ALMIRA  CUTLER.  VIVIAN  ELAINE  GLADWIN. 

CHARLOTTE  GRAHAM  GEER.  MINNIE  CLARA  EIGBY. 

ETHEL  EAY  SAWYER. 


The  Degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts  on: 

ARLON  TAYLOR  ADAMS.  ZIBA  PLATT  BENNETT. 

IRVING  MONROE  ANDERSON.  JEROME  HAROLD  BENTLEY. 

OLAF  JOHN  ANDERSON.  WALTER  CREIGHTON  BROWN. 

JAMES  GUY  BAGG.  OTTO  ASBURY  BUSHNELL. 

FRANK  MILTON  BAKER.  OLIN  MASON  CAWARD. 

CHARLES  PRESCOTT  BARKER.  CLARENCE  FLETCHER  CORNER. 

237 


238  APPENDIX 

HARRY  PIERSON  DAY.  RALPH  NORTON. 

RIDGWAY  BOWERS  ESPY.  FLETCHER  HURST  PARSONS. 

PERRY  SHERMAN  HOWE.  HERBERT  BRONSON  SHONK. 

ARTHUR  GRANT  HUME.  HARRY  HUNTINGTON  SMITH. 

HERBERT  VAN  DEVANTER  LACEY.  ROBINSON  SPENCER. 

JOHN  WILLIAM  LANGDALE.  GEORGE  FRANKLIN  STRONG. 

RALPH  CLINTON  LATHROP.  FRANK  VANHAAG  STUTSMAN. 

FLOYD  SWALLOW  LEACH.  JAMES  ROGERS  VEITCH. 

HARRY  WILBER  LITTLE.  WILLIAM  HOYT  WEBER. 

ARCHIBALD  CAMPBELL  MCKILLOP.  MYRON  JOHN  WILLSON. 
WILLIAM  EDWARD  HULBERT  MATHISON. 

MARY  ELIZABETH  BAGG.  FAITH  ELEANOR  HILLS. 


The  Degree  of  Master  of  Science  on : 

GEORGE  ROWLAND  MONROE,  Ph.B.,  1893. 
HERBERT  COOPER  WARD,  Ph.B.,  1901. 


Tlie  Degree  of  Master  of  Arts  on: 
WALTER  FENNO  DEARBORN,  B.A.,  1900. 


J^onorarp  SDegrceg 
* 

The  following  honorary  degrees  were  conferred : 

The  Degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  on : 

WILLIAM  EDWARDS  HUNTINGTON, 

Acting  President  of  Boston  University. 

HENRY  ANSON  BUTTZ, 

President  of  Drew  Theological  Seminary. 

JOHN  BINNEY, 

Dean  of  Berkeley  Divinity  School. 

FRANK  KNIGHT  SANDERS, 

Dean  of  the  Divinity  School,  Yale  University. 


APPENDIX  239 

WILLIAM  FRASER  MCDOWELL, 

Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church. 

EUGENE  RUSSELL  HENDRIX, 

Bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 

CHAUNCEX-  BUNCE  BREWSTER, 

Bishop  of  the  Diocese  of  Connecticut. 


The  Degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws  on  : 

HENRY  CRUISE  MURPHY  INGRAHAM, 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

DAVID  ALLISON, 

President  of  the  University  of  Mt.  Allison  College,  Canada. 

JAMES  WHITFORD  BASHFORD, 

President  of  Ohio  Wesleyan  University. 

WILLIAM  JEWETT  TUCKER, 

President  of  Dartmouth  College. 

HENRY  VAN  DYKE, 

Professor  of  English  Literature,  Princeton  University. 

WILLIAM  HENRY  BREWER, 
.     Professor  of  Agriculture,  Sheffield  Scientific  School. 

RICHARD  WATSON  GILDER, 

Editor  of  "  The  Century  Magazine." 

JOHN  LEWIS  BATES, 

Governor  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts. 

LESLIE  MORTIER  SHAW, 

Secretary  of  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States. 

ABIRAM  CHAMBERLAIN, 

Governor  of  the  State  of  Connecticut. 


A     000020290     3 


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